It's Pop!

Madonna's Superbowl Halftime Show Folies

2012-02-06T15:54:00.000+01:00

Last night (Feb 5) Madonna performed at the Superbowl half-time show in Indianapolis to an audience of about the entire humanity and beyond. Although I have to admit I was expecting even more, the Queen of Pop delivered. Dozen dancers, acrobats, absolute morons (LMFAO) and more golden costumes Dolce & Gabbana could ever think of.

Of course the lip-synching was obvious (a bit less on Music & Like A Prayer), but is that a surprise to anyone, really? What's important is the production value of the show was high, because the half-time show is all about entertainment, right? A comment I read a lot last night (when around 10,000 tweets were posted every second!) is "OMG she's 53", "Wow she's delivering at her age" etc... Funny how rarely the age of male performers is referred to as a key fact in their performances. Bruce Springsteen is 62. Prince is 53 too, Bono is 51, Paul McCartney is 69... And yet they still deliver big time (I recently saw Sir Paul, he was mind-blowingly good) without anyone feeling the need to note their age.

Madonna is still more than able to give show-stopping performances and only her energy, relevance, creativity and showmanship should be taken into account.

Speaking of creativity, while nothing really is ever new in pop, the whole egyptian-meet-ancient-roman-and-greek theme that leads the beginning of the performance was very reminiscent of a certain other pop goddess' recent show. The first act of Kylie's 2011 Aphrodite Les Folies Tour was tackling the same themes and visuals. Did Madonna get a little inspiration from her only real challenger? Maybe (check the videos below for comparisons)! Then again Britney's recent Femme Fatale Tour offered a very similar display of Egypt-inspired performance. Guess what, this show was creatively directed by Jamie King, just like Madge's last night. And naughty Jamie is quite famous for recycling ideas, stages and visuals from one project to another (I'll write about that one day).

All in all: well done Madonna, that was a way to make a comeback. Now go rehearse for the tour, which is said to launch in Israel on May 31st. Funnily enough her latest tour came to an end there!

M.I.A: you couldn't help yourself, right?

Inspiration?

Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite Les Folies

I Believe In You

The One

Britney Spears - The Femme Fatale Tour

Gimme More

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #12 Nerina Pallot - All Bets Are Off

2012-02-06T08:00:00.000+01:00

Nerina Pallot - All Bets Are Off (We Are The Chatterleys Alt Mix) by Nerina Pallot

#What? All Bets Are Off (single + Remix)

#Who? Nerina Pallot. If you've read this blog before, you know the lady's latest album "Year Of the Wolf" was a favorite of mine last year. Try these posts for proof.

#Fact/ All Bets Are Off is the third to be taken from Nerina's album. Or if you will, the first single to be taken from the re-release of the album, aptly titled New Year Of The Wolf. On this new version are three new song and 6 covers recorded for the BBC. Here they are:

Crazy In Love [Beyonce cover from Dermot O’Leary]
Rocket Man [Elton John cover from Weekend Wogan]
The Chime Of A City Clock [Nick Drake cover from Jools Holland]
Someone To Watch Over Me [Gershwin song taken from Friday Night Is Music Night]
Life On Mars [David Bowie cover taken from Friday Night Is Music Night]
High & Dry [Radiohead cover taken from In Concert, Abbey Road]

Here is the original version of the song (beautiful) as well a great, slightly heavier remix.

#Link/ Website : http://www.nerinapallot.com/ (links to buy the album are to be found there).

Madonna - Give Me All Your Luvin' feat Nicki Minaj & MIA (video Premiere)

2012-02-03T15:15:00.001+01:00

MADONNA, THE (MOSTLY) FLAWLESS QUEEN OF POP IS BACK. Now would all pop losers please move over?

What do you think ?

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #11 Ladyhawke - Black, White & Blue

2012-01-30T08:00:00.001+01:00

#What? Black White & Blue (single)

#Who? Ladyhawke. The woman is quite reliable when it comes to delivering good pop. Remeber her self-titled debut album? I'll tell you what, it was great.

#Fact/ First single Black, White & Blue is taken for her upcoming second album Anxiety, out February 20th. I've been able to listen to it and my initial thought is: good job, woman. More on that soon.

#Link/ Website : ladyhawkemusic.com

[COPY/PASTE] Madonna album, single & performance news regarding MDNA

2012-01-30T00:00:00.001+01:00

In order to save myself some time, and because good PR has to be noted when it happens, here's what will probably be remembered as my greatest piece of writing ever: the whole press release regarding Madonna's new album MDNA, which will be released on March 26. Thanks Madge, but my band Studio Paradise is releasing their debut EP on the same day, and we scheduled that BEFORE.

All the info you need to know is to be found below. Above is the artwork for the single. Good. Now bring on Feb 3rd for the Give Me All Your Luvin' video! MDNA week has just begun.

Madonna will be releasing her new single "Give Me All Your Luvin'" featuring Nicki Minaj & M.I.A. on February 3rd, three days before her highly anticipated Bridgestone Super Bowl halftime performance, it was officially confirmed by Interscope Records. "Give Me All Your Luvin'" is the first single from Madonna's upcoming album MDNA , her 12th studio album and follow up to 2008's Hard Candy which debuted at No. 1 in 37 countries. The song was written by Madonna, Martin Solveig, Nicki Minaj and M.I.A, composed by Martin Solveig and Michael Tordjman and produced by Madonna and Martin Solveig.

iTunes will offer an exclusive global pre-order of an 18 track Deluxe Edition of MDNA including one exclusive remix from Madonna's new album. The bonus remix will be available from Friday February 3rd through Monday February 6th only. During this time period the album will be available for $9.99 and fans will also receive the digital single "Give Me All Your Luvin'" immediately. This single is also exclusive to iTunes during this limited time. At launch, the offer can be found at www.itunes.com/madonna

The video for "Give Me All Your Luvin'" directed by Megaforce, is football and cheerleader themed - inspired by her upcoming Super Bowl appearance. In an AMERICAN IDOL exclusive, Madonna will world preview the video for her new single "Give Me All Your Luvin'" featuring Nicki Minaj and M.I.A., during IDOL Thursday, Feb. 2 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. The full video for "Give Me All Your Luvin'" will premiere on Madonna's YouTube channel on February 3rd at 9am EST/6am PST.

MDNA, recorded in New York and LA, reunites Madonna with former collaborator William Orbit ("Ray of Light") who co wrote and co produced several cuts on the new album. Other co producers include Martin Solveig, The Demolition Crew, Marco "Benny" Benassi and Alessandro "Alle" Benassi, Hardy "Indiigo" Muanza, Michael Malih and Madonna.

The Golden Globe Award winning song "Masterpiece" from the Madonna directed Weinstein Company film "W.E." which opens in February is also included on MDNA as well as on W.E. - Music From the Soundtrack which is scheduled to be released on January 31st at digital retailers on Interscope as well. The Compact Disc version of the soundtrack is scheduled to be released exclusively at Amazon.com on February 14th. The score was composed, orchestrated and produced by Abel Korzeniowski.

Madonna is scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Show on January 30th.

EDIT: Here's what's said to be the album cover. You like?

[LIVE REPORT] Revolver @ Le Point Ephemere, Paris (+video)

2012-01-26T10:41:00.003+01:00

Revolver's excellent second album won't be out until March 12 in France, but their Wind Song EP gives you a taste of what to come (I told you about it here).

On Tuesday they played their first parisian show in quite a while to test the new songs, and boy they delivered. Perfect show from start to finish, amazing new songs, great additions to the band (on the bass & drums) and beautiful harmonies -as always. The older songs were given a more electric treatment that suits them perfectly. These guys pretty much are (one of the many) definitions of pop.

Here's Wind Song filmed by Le Transistor inside the EMI conference room . If this song isn't a hit, I don't know what is.

Setlist for the Jan 24 show at Le Point Ephémère, Paris :

My Old Self

Losing You (HIT)

Let’s Get Together (HIT)

Parallel Lives (HIT)

The Letter

49 States

Get Around Town

When You’re Away

Still

Cassavetes

Balulalow

Brothers

Wind Song

---

How deep is your love (The Bee Gees cover)

(Photo by Michela Cuccagna for Street Press)

More beautiful photos here

(Vidéo by Benjamin Lemaire)

Kylie's #K25 "year of celebrations" is starting tomorrow (January 25)

2012-01-24T18:11:00.001+01:00

#K25 is Kylie's own way to celebrate her 25th anniversary in the music business. Starting January 25th, she'll be unveiling stuff to celebrate the milestone. Basically she'll make her fans happy!

Tomorrow when hashtag #k25fans reaches 25 000 retweets on Twitter she'll unveil the full video for the orchestral version of 1992 hit Finer Feelings. Cause yeah, Min's been hard at work in the studio with the whole Aphrodite Team (band, vocalists and producer Steve Anderson) to record an orchestral best-of album.

EDIT

Here's the stunning full version. This woman can do no wrong.

Follow Kylie on Twitter : @kylieminogue

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #10 01.23.12 Coco Morier - EP

2012-01-23T08:00:00.004+01:00

<p>&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://cocomorier.bandcamp.com/album/coco-morier-ep"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Coco Morier EP by Coco Morier&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

#What? Coco Morier EP (EP)

#Who? New popstar alert!!! Coco Morier is my first pop crush of 2012.

#Fact/ I so totally stumbled on her Facebook fanpage thanks to the always reliable (except when he's stanning over Heidi Montag ;) ) Muumuse. Now I'm learning she's a songwriter who's written many a song for Britney (Heaven On Earth, top-notch track on Blackout, How I Roll & Trip To Your Heart on Femme Fatale) as well as for a handfull of other artists (full list here). Coco was also a member of electro-rock duo Electrocute AND Charlotte Gainsbourg's lead guitarist and background singer on her 2009/10 tour!
She's juste released a five-track EP that's very very good. Track Explosion is great electro-pop just the way I like it. Think a bit Robyn, a bit Neon Hitch when she's good, a bit Cindy Lauper's Echo. The EP was co-written with Skye Ferreira and Miike Snow among others. That should convince you to buy it ASAP, just as I did. Player Of Love is a great track too.

#Link/ Funnily enough Coco's Facebook page only has about 300 "fans". Like it now! Listen to the whole EP on Soundcloud and BUY it here or through the convenient widget above.

25 years of the history of Pop in 17 minutes

2012-01-22T14:53:00.000+01:00

A few facts :

- 2012 marks the 25th year of Kylie in the music business. Expect lots of cool things to happen (the first one being an orchestral best-of album).

- Kylie's music career is probably one of the most iconic and interesting in modern pop. Ups, downs, cheesy tracks, ambitious indie moments, unforgettable performances and videos, and of course countless hits.

- Someone made a 17-minute montage of all Kylie videos. Better than reading a book about how pop evolved in the last 25 years.

- Indie Kylie (1994/98) really was something, wasn't it?

- Thank you Kylie Minogue for being such an tireless defender of good pop.

Now if you will, let's STEP BACK IN TIME.

[ACOUSTIC SESSION] The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Heart Attack

2012-01-21T16:09:00.000+01:00

I told you about the awesomeness of the new The Asteroids Galaxy Tour single last Monday. Since then my friends from 3ème Gauche TV and I have been able to meet Mette & Lars and interview them.

While our chat will be posted a bit later, we've got something great to keep you waiting! The Danish twosome played the Heart Attack just for us, in an acoustic fashion that suits it very well!

And as you can see from the picture, Mette and I are totally BFFs now.

Merci à la boutique Gals Rock, lieu dédié à la culture rock féminine. Une très bonne adresse (et un bel accueil) pour trouver des albums rares, et dénicher des idées cadeaux originales.
Gals Rock, 17 rue Henri Monnier, 75009 Paris. (Facebook) www.galsrock.fr

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #9 01.19.12 Emeli Sandé - Next To Me

2012-01-19T08:00:00.001+01:00

#What? Next To Me (single)

#Who? Emeli Sandé is quite hot at the moment. After the big success of her debut single Heaven last fall, a Brits Critics Choice Award, and an opening slot on Coldplay's European tour, Emeli's one of the most anticipated artist of 2012.

#Fact/ With this single being reminiscent of Rolling In The Deep, and her debut album sounding like a balladfest (listen to snippets here), is Emeli the new Adele? Let's hope she's not, as she's sounding amazing on uptempo/dancey stuff, as Heaven proved. I preferred this direction for her. But who knows, the whole LP could be a great surprise! We'll find out when Our Version Of Events drops on Feb 13 (March 12 in France).

#Link/ Twitter seems like a good way to get better acquainted with Emeli

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #8 01.18.12 Amadou & Mariam feat. Santigold - Dougou Badia

2012-01-18T08:00:00.001+01:00

#What? Dougou Badia (single)

#Who? Amadou & Mariam feat. Santigold. The couple from Mali were joined by queen of crazy tribal pop for one of the many collaborations on A&M's forthcoming album Folila, out March 26.

#Fact/ Amadou & Mariam might be the most successful African musicians at the moment. If you've never listened to their soulful and beautiful music, well you should. Sabali, from their previous record Welcome To Mali is such a good song it's perfect to dance & cry to. It was dancefloor-approved no later than last weekend, mind you. There's also a song with Scissor Sister Jake Shears on the new album, which I've just listened to tonight, and let me tell you something: it's seriously AMAZING. Chéri je te fais un gros bisou, as Mariam would say.

#Link/ An EP containing the track (and another one with French singer Bertrand Cantat) was just released. Buy it here (FR) (UK)

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #7 01.17.12 War Of Words - Battleground

2012-01-17T12:09:00.000+01:00

#What? Battlegound (single)

#Who? War Of Words. I told you about those girls a while back, saying their two (TWO) debut singles were awesome. Not much has changed since then. Still awesome.

#Fact/ So, Battleground is one of two singles that should launch this UK female twosome properly. Instead, both singles are probably going to go unnoticed, because radio people and the "record"-buying public are pretty much out of their minds at the moment (Jessie J's Domino at #1, really????!). Second single Panic is pretty epic and amazing too. So basically it's two fantastic singles for the price of one (for the price of two, but you see what I mean).

#Link/ BUY THESE F*CKING SINGLES : Amazon UK, Amazon Fr, iTunes UK, iTunes Fr.

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #6 01.16.12 The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Heart Attack

2012-01-16T08:00:00.002+01:00

#What? Heart Attack (single)

#Who? The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. A Danish band already responsible for one amazing single : The Sun Ain't Shining No More. And another one, Around The Bend, which was featured in an iPod commercial back in 2008.

#Fact/ This very very good and very very Dragonette-esque new single from the Danish twosome introduces the band's second album Out Of Frenquency, which is out on January 31st (US) and February 24th (Europe). I'm meeting those two next Wednesday, so I should be able to tell you more very soon.

#Link/ A band's YouTube page is a nice place to go to watch music videos. Theirs are pretty cool: http://www.youtube.com/user/asteroidsgalaxytour

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #5 01.13.12 The Shins - Simple Song

2012-01-13T08:00:00.001+01:00

#What? Simple Song (single)

#Who? The Shins. A US band I like a lot because a) they did amazing songs that were on the OST for that cool movie with the guy from Scrubs and Natalie Portman (Garden State) and b) they have a song called Australia that was conveniently released when my sister left for a year down under, so I was able to make her a mix CD with this song on it.

#Fact/ This is the first single to be taken from their forthcoming album Port Of Morrow, out March 20th. It's uplifting and beautiful and I like it a lot. Thank you ASL for the head's up!

#Link/ The band's Facebook page seems like a good place to go for someone who wants to be updated on what they're up to. http://www.facebook.com/theshins

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #4 01.12.12 Madonna - Impressive Instant / Burning Up (Sticky & Sweet Tour Demo)

2012-01-12T08:00:00.005+01:00

#What? Impressive Instant / Burning Up medley (unreleased mashup)

#Who? Madonna. I thought the announcement of her new album's name was worth celebrating a bit more.

#Fact/ This amazing mashup composed of Music album track Impressive Instant and 1983 single Burning Up was supposed to be part of M's latest tour Sticky And Sweet Tour (2008/2009) as part of the last act of the show. As she does for all of her tours, she recorded the whole show during the rehearsals and those demos leaked online later. Unfortunately this song was left aside at the last minute. Too bad, it would have been perfect for this show.

#Link/ Madonnalicious, a great fan site!

Madonna's new album is called...

2012-01-11T16:48:00.001+01:00

M.D.N.A. !

The name of the new album was just announced on the Queen's official Facebook page.

Sounds good, right? Debut single Gimme All Your Luvin (God that title sucks) will premiere at the Superbowl half-time show on February 5th, and maybe even before if it leaks like an Xtina at a Taco Bell restaurant.

The new era is ON!

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #3 01.11.12 Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out / Studio Paradise - I Am The Walrus

2012-01-11T08:00:00.001+01:00

Stevie Wonder:

Studio Paradise:

Studio Paradise - I Am the Walrus (The Beatles cover) by STUDIO PARADISE

#What? We Can Work It Out (my fave Beatles song? Probably) / I Am The Walrus (album tracks)

#Who? Soul legend Stevie Wonder (kinda hope you know who he is) and up and coming French band Studio Paradise. These guys are going to blow your socks off very very soon.

#Fact/ Both tracks are taken from a new compilation called Beatles Mania, put together by French multifaceted art director Béatrice Ardisson. While CD1 offers a selection of well-known Beatles covers (by Nina Simone, Al Green, Ella Fitzgerald, Fiona Apple and amazing Stevie Wonder), CD2 gives unsigned French bands a chance to shine with a cover of the Fab Four. And boy does the Corsican/Parisian 5-piece band shine. Their cover is brilliant, and while remaining true to the original, it brings something new to it. I'm very lucky to be managing Studio Paradise, I telling you. And by the way, I'm very happy to introduce them to you (I'll do it again properly soon). Their debut EP is released in March.

#Links/ Buy the album on iTunes (FR) + Follow Studio Paradise on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Soundcloud.

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #2 01.10.12 Nicola Roberts - Memory Of You

2012-01-10T08:00:00.000+01:00

Aloud fans (and others), this track is worth your attention!

#What? Memory Of You (b-side)

#Who? Flawless solo popstar and one fifth of UK girlband Girls Aloud Nicola Roberts released Yo-Yo, the excellent third single off her debut album Cinderella's Eyes on January 8th. Way to start the new year!

#Fact/ This dreamy electro-pop track is originally a Girls Aloud b-side from their 2009 single The Loving Kind. Nicola just used the version with her own vocals as a b-side to her own single.

#Link/ iTunes (UK)

Coachella 2012 line-up announced : it's hot

2012-01-10T01:41:00.000+01:00

Guys, gals and robots, I only have one thing to say: my birthday is on April 2nd. You know what to do.

[DAIL'ITSPOP] #1 01.09.12 The Weeknd - Montreal

2012-01-09T08:00:00.005+01:00

The first artist to feature in this new section of the blog is one of my favorites of the past few months.

#What? Montreal (single)

#Who? The Weeknd, a.k.a. Abel Tesfaye, a canadian singer and producer who made 2011 a pretty good year by releasing and giving for free three 'mixtapes' of very high quality. All this is extremely promising and he should be quite big in 2012.

#Fact/ Montreal is taken from the third mixtape Echoes of Silence and samples the french singer Serge Gainsbourg-written track Laisse Tomber Les Filles (sung by France Gall in 1964, and covered in a french/english version by April March in 1995). Basically amazing.

#Link/ http://the-weeknd.com/

[INTERVIEW] Foster The People: "It's all kind of a blur"

2012-01-07T13:11:00.000+01:00

I absolutely totally completely forgot to post the interview @3emeGauche and I did with Foster The People, you know, that band full of hotties and whose album is so hit-packed it would almost make Girls Aloud blush? We met them a few hours before their sold-out show at La Cigale, one of the best venues in Paris, during the Inrocks Black XS Festival.

Well anyway, here it is for your viewing pleasure. My only question is: why the hell was I wearing glasses on that day??!!

On a side note, Foster The People's amazing album Torches is still available for you to purchase, and you can watch their latest very good video for Don't Stop, which features Gabourey Sidibe (of Precious fame) right here right now.

Don't forget to visit www.3emegauche.tv for more interviews, live sessions and more great stuff.

New Scissor Sisters - Shady Love

2012-01-02T14:18:00.002+01:00

First things first: I wish you all a marvelous year, full of Madonna albums, Kylie 25th anniversary... and Scissor Sisters amazingness!

Yes Sir, our beloved Scissters just premiered a new track on UK radio, and guess what: it's fantastic. It's surprising, unexpected while remaining true to the band's uninterrupted string of fun, energetic and sexy tunes.

Shady Love features up & coming female rapper Azealia Banks (quite good track here) and sees Jake Shears rapping, à la Robbie Williams Rudebox era (his best yet most underrated album), only better. And it references Madonna at some point!

Guys, gals and shemales, I have a feeling we're going to be partying HARD to this new Scissor Sisters jam. Anyway 2012 is starting off pretty well!

EDIT: now we have a video!

Shady Love (Clean) by Scissor Sisters Official

It's Pop's top 50 singles of 2011

2011-12-28T12:22:00.003+01:00

It's that time of the year again! You know, that moment when every person on the internet feels the need to tell the world about the songs/movies/books/whatever they liked during the year and list them. Well I'm one of them.

So without further ado here are my top 50+ songs of 2011. You can listen to them while you read thanks to a handy SPOTIFY PLAYLIST. When the songs aren't available on there, I provided you with a link ("LISTEN").

Of course I'd like to know what you've been listening to during the year, so please write your own top 5/10/20/100 in the comments section!

#1 Nicola Roberts - Lucky Day

Pairing with Dragonette could only equal magic. This song is exactly why I love pop so much and think it's better than anything else in the world. Nicola Roberts : popstar of the year.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Yo-Yo, Porcelain Heart, Gladiator, Beat Of My Drum

#2 The Rapture - How Deep Is Your Love?

HOLY MOTHER OF F*CK I F*CKING LOVE THIS SONG.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Sail Away, In The Grace Of Your Love

#3 Nerina Pallot - Put Your Hands Up

Uplifting and enchanting while being slightly melancholic this song is like the memory of an amazing Summer vacation. Thinking about it I might love it even more than an actual Summer vacation.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Turn Me On Again, All Bets Are Off, Butterfly, Will You Still Love Me

#4 Britney Spears - Gasoline

It took me 6 months to finally admit I liked Till The Wold Ends (those verses and second chorus!) but this one is clearly the best off Femme Fatale for me. Simple, super catchy, sexy… Too bad it was left out of the tour setlist.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Till The World Ends, I Wanna Go, Up & Down, Inside Out

#5 Creature - So High

This pretty much came out of nowhere, and thank God I didn't miss it. Hypnotic and highly addictive, this is pop at its best.

LISTEN

#6 Neon Hitch - Get Over U

I might not have been hooked on her following singles/buzz tracks/whatever, but this one got me from the very first play. Here's hoping more like this is to come on her debut album (if it's released one day).

#7 Will Young - Jealousy

The definition of classy pop by an artist at the top of his game. Breathtaking!

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Hearts On Fire, I Just Want A Lover, Silent Valentine, The Way I See

#8 Erik Hassle - Are You Leaving

II want to believe that Erik's going to be an internationally acclaimed popstar someday, just as he deserves to be. Well to be honest if he didn't make it with a song like this (and his debut album), I don't know how he will.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: debut album Hassle or Pieces, depending on your country.

LISTEN

#9 Rover - Tonight

This is one hell of a revelation. The album's dropping in February, but I can already tell you it's a masterpiece. Till the release, give the debut EP multiple spins, you'll be addicted.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Aqualast, Birds, Joy

#10 Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Under Your Touch

My love for Sophie is no secret, and her latest (unfairly overlooked) album is great, just as this pumping track is. A must-listen.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Heartbreak, Bittersweet, Magic, Make A Scene

#11 Darren Hayes - Talk Talk Talk

I like it when lead singles from albums are actually my favorite tracks. While the rest of the record was not as exciting as I'd hoped, this song is just an intense slice of electro-infused pop with the voice of an filthy angel.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Don't Give Up, Black Out The Sun, Stupid Mistake

#12 Bright Light Bright Light - Disco Moment

If this guy going to release an album someday or what???! Answer: yes, and sooner than you thought. Thank God, he's probably going to save pop (again).

LISTEN

#13 Nicola Roberts - Beat Of My Drum

Wow, this was a way for Girls Aloud's best member to start her solo career. What's I love most about this song is it's not even the best one on the album. Brilliant pop!

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Yo-Yo, Porcelain Heart, Gladiator, Lucky Day

#14 Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers

More than a year after meeting her and hearing this song for the first time, I'm still haunted and obsessed by them. Genius.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Get Some, Sadness Is A Blessing, Rich Kids Blues

#15 Christophe Willem - Cool

The album (or should I say collection of Kylie leftovers and sub-diva imitation numbers both with dreadful lyrics) sure is disappointing, but this track is amazing. And so is L'amour me Gagne. The rest is :(

Other tracks worthy of your attention: sure, if you like cheap songs.

#16 Beyoncé - End of Time

Why this wasn't chosen as B's 1st single off her "4" album, but the 467th is beyond me. This song is fire!

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Run The World (Girls), Love On Top, I Was Here

#17 Florence and The Machine - Lover To Lover

Oh Florence, goddess of hypnotical chanting and pop amazingness.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Shake It Out, What The Water Gave Me, No Light, No Light

#18 Frankmusik - The Fear Inside

Sometimes, on a very very bad album, there's one amazing track.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: LOL

LISTEN

#19 Beth Ditto - I Wrote The Book

Oh BETH!! Who knew the Gossip icon was one of the very few heirs worthy of Madonna ?

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Good Night Good Morning, Open Heart Surgery, Do You Need Someone

#20 Clare Maguire - The Last Dance

I'm so sad this song and album didn't get the success it deserved. Still, one of the finest of the year.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: I Surrender, The Shield and the Sword, Ain't Nobody

#21 Kylie Minogue - What Do I Have To Do (Les Folies Aphrodite Live)

Kylie's latest tour Les Folies is an amazing 2-hour pop marathon full of iconic moments, and this reworking of an old track just slays the original version.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Aphrodite, Spinning Around, Closer, There Must Be An Angel, All The Lovers

#22 The Sound of Arrows - Wonders

This is the tip of the iceberg of Swedish pop. PLEASE listen to the album, it's marvelous.
(And this is probably one of the best artworks of the year).

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Nova, Ruins Of Rome, Magic

#23 Catherine Ringer - Prends-Moi

This woman -half of former twosome Rita Mitsuko- is one of the most amazing ones in French music, and so is her debut solo album. At 50, Mrs. Ringer is probably the greatest french popstar. I LOVE her.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Vive l'amour, Pardon, Quel est ton nom, Mahler

#24 The Kooks - The Saboteur

The band's best track of the year wasn't even on their album Junk Of The Heart. Which doesn't mean it's not full of great tracks.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Eskimo Kiss, Junk Of The Heart

LISTEN

#25 Oh My! - Kicking and Screaming

Pop injustice alert!! They didn't break through with such an amazing song, they might as well go back to their non-popstar life. :/

LISTEN

#26 Wolfette - Different Story

Very promising artist who knows how to write a pop song. My kinda girl.

#27 Marina And The Diamonds - Radioactive

Marina exploring a new way with Electra Heart isn't as good as Marina being Marina, but it's still so much better than 99% of all pop songs released this year...

#28 Adele - Rumour Has It

I've always thought Someone like you was boring. This one isn't.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Set Fire To The Rain, Rolling In The Deep (my #3 song of 2010)

LISTEN

#29 Brigitte Fontaine - Dancefloor feat. Grace Jones

Two icons collaborate on a bouncy club song with cheeky/crazy lyrics: yes Sir!

#30 Orelsan - Plus Rien Ne M'étonne

Yes I listened to one (very good) rap song (and album) in 2011.

Other tracks worthy of your attention: Suicide Social, Des Trous Dans La Tête, Mauvaise Idée

31 - Lady Gaga - Heavy Metal Lover (LISTEN)

32 - Arctic Monkeys - The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala

33 - Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks

34 - Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger (feat. Christina Aguilera)

35 - Penguin Prison - Golden Train

36 - Revolver - Wind Song

37 - M83 - Midnight City

38 - The Shoes - Time to dance

39 - Kelly Clarkson - What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)

40 - Florrie - I Took A Little Something

41 - One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful

42 - TV On The Radio - Second Song

43 - The Black Keys - Lonely Boy

44 - Alex Turner - Piledriver Waltz

45 - Lloyd - Dedication To My Ex (Miss That) (Ft André 3000 & Lil Wayne)

46 - Brigitte - Oh La La

47 - Katy B - Broken Record

48 - Amanda Mair - Doubt

49 - The Weeknd - High For This (LISTEN)

50 - The Saturdays - All Fired Up

- Honorable Mention -

Miles Kane - Rearrange / Holy Ghost - Do It Again / Caotico - Brains Out (feat. Tove Styrke) / Yasmin - Finish Line & On My Own / Jenifer - L'amour Fou (Remix) / Take That - Love Love / Leona Lewis - Hurt & Collide / Coldplay - Paradise / Alex Winston - Locomotive / Julien Doré - Kiss Me Forever / Emeli Sandé - Heaven / The Saturdays - Notorious / The Wanted - Glad You Came / Rihanna feat Calvin Harris - We Found Love / Anna Calvi - Desire / Oh Land - Voodoo / Foster The People - Houdini / Britney Spears - Till The World Ends / Alexis Jordan - Good Girl / Kasabian - Days Are Forgotten / Lana Del Rey - Blue Jeans / Yuksek - On A Train / Lady Gaga - Born This Way / Beyoncé - Love On Top

Glory Box : c'est Noël dans ta radio!

2011-12-14T01:50:00.000+01:00

Oyez oyez petits lutins. Alors qu'à l'approche des fêtes vous vous apprêtez à faire bombance et à vous déconnecter pour quelques jours dans l'allégresse la plus totale, baignée de foie gras et autres chapons farcis, certains ont pensé à vous. Et je ne parle pas de votre vieille tatie qui cette année encore vous a acheté une paire de chaussettes Lucky Luke.

C'est l'ami Nico Prat se met en quatre pour vous apporter un peu de répit entre deux tranches de dinde. Nico, c'est cette voix grave avec qui j'ai le plaisir de partager le micro de temps à autres sur Le Mouv dans l'émission de la parfaite Laura Leishman (mon épouse depuis ce weekend sur Twitter, et âme soeur Xenomanienne...), et qui ne recule devant rien pour défendre ces zinzins de frères Gallagher. Sauf que cette fois-ci, c'est aux jeunes talents qu'il s'intéresse, et non aux vieilles gloires du rock mancunien. "Glory Box", c'est le nom de l'émission qu'il vous proposera les dimanche 25 décembre et 1er janvier prochains sur Le Mouv de 10h à 11h.

Le concept ? C'est lui qui en parle le mieux :

"laisser, pendant une heure, la parole à un groupe ou un artiste pris
au berceau de sa carrière (premier EP ou premier album)
On parle avec eux de leur musique, de leurs influences, de leurs
projets et de leurs espoirs.
On se ballade dans leur ipod, on les resitue sur l'échiquier pop, ils
interprètent un titre acoustique, dévoilent des inédits, reçoivent le
conseil d'un artiste confirmé..."

Vu d'ici ça m'a l'air bien sympa, typiquement le genre d'émission que j'ai envie d'écouter, à la fois proche des artistes et de l'auditeur. Pas très étonnant que cette émission ait trouvé une place sur Le Mouv.

Rendez-vous donc le matin de Noël avec Juveniles et celui du nouvel an avec Charles-Baptiste. Rassurez-vous, ce bon Nico et ses invités ne manqueront ni les cadeaux au pied du sapin, ni leur premier doliprane de l'année, les émissions ayant été enregistrées cette semaine. On est rassuré.

Découvrez Juveniles

Découvrez Charles-Baptiste

Suivez Nico Prat sur Twitter

Juveniles - We Are Young Official Video par juvenilesmusic

Goldfrapp announce "The Singles" collection and new track Yellow Halo

2011-12-08T16:18:00.001+01:00

Pop wonders and probably one of the most amazing bands EVER Goldfrapp just announced the release of their first "best-of" album The Singles, set for February 6th. All those amazing songs put together probably make it one of the most fantastic pop records of all time, no less.

Of course the tracklisting will comprise new tracks, two to be precise: Melancholy Sky is the first one and what seems to be "the single" is a beautiful track called Yellow Halo. The band made a video themselves with their iPhones (codename for: no budget at all) while on tour in South America.

Despite the fact this compilation comes with the end of the band's contract with their current label, it's nice to hear new music from Alison and her men. Now I can't wait to see how things will turn out for them in the future. My bet is: they will remain amazing.

Here's the tracklisting for the CD :

1. Ooh La La 9/10
2. Number 1 8/10
3. Strict Machine (Single Mix) 9/10
4. Lovely Head 7,5/10
5. Utopia (Genetically Enriched) 8,5/10
6. A&E 9/10
7. Happiness (Single Version) 8/10
8. Train 8,5/10
9. Ride A White Horse (Single Version) 9,5/10
10. Rocket 8,5/10
11. Believer 8/10
12. Black Cherry 8/10
13. Yellow Halo 8,5/10
14. Melancholy Sky ?

Revolver de retour avec l'EP "Wind Song"

2011-12-05T13:29:00.002+01:00

Mes chouchous de Revolver seront officiellement de retour le 1é2 décembre prochain avec un EP annonçant la sortie début 2012 de leur second album. "Wind Song EP" propose, outre l'excellente et super-entêtante chanson éponyme, le magnifique titre The Letter, et deux remixes.

Ayant eu la chance d'entendre bon nombre de titres du prochain album du trio, il y a quelques mois en studio, je peux vous assurer que celui-ci s'annonce particulièrement excitant. Les deux titres que l'on découvre en avant-première donnent un excellent aperçu de ce qui nous attend.

Si vous n'avez pas encore regardé le reportage et l'interview réalisés par 3eme Gauche et moi-même en studio avec le groupe, vous pouvez toujours le faire ici. Et pour écouter Wind Song, c'est ci-dessous !

December 1st, 2011 : The day I met pop Goddess Sophie Ellis Bextor

2011-12-02T02:22:00.003+01:00

Yes.

I usually try not to lose my senses/brag/act like a horny teenager/act anything but professional when I meet a "celebrity" (anyone remotely famous for doing anything more or less artistic), but sometimes love comes in the way.

Well, that's for times when I don't meet IDOLS and/or proper pop legends. Imagine when I meet Kylie or Madonna.

Tonight was a party held at the UK Embassy in Paris, for the opening of the new Burberry store on the same street. Super classy & luxurious thing, movie stars, music stars, champagne, great food, Alexa Chung DJing (which means playing Kylie's Better The Devil You Know - Destiny's Child's Bug A Boo - Kelis' Acapella -best DJ ever or what?), models everywhere, and a private show by rather good UK band The Feeling.

Hello you.

The Feeling + String Quartet: nice

Well, when I think "The Feeling" I think "one of those guys is Sophie Ellis Bextor's husband" and "oh yeah they have a few good songs". So I was kinda hoping she'd be there too.

Two songs into the band's set I turned my head to ~~grab another glass of champagne~~ ~~totally check out a hot model~~ take a look at the crowd enjoying themselves and I saw her: insanely beautiful, graciously wearing a white dress subtly showing her baby bump, and singing all the words to the song being performed. All I could think about was for the show to end so I could try and go say hi.

WHICH I SO TOTALLY DID. Here's how things went down:

- Hi, I'm so sorry to disturb you, and I usually don't do this, but I just wanted to say hi and thank you for you latest album, and the previous ones. (For real, I managed to form a whole sentence).

- Oh thank you that's so nice. Sophie, Nice to meet you (handshake)

- Loïc, lovely to meet you too. I can't wait for you to perform in France! When's that going to happen?

- I don't know yet, soon I hope.

- I'll book you! (yes, the Champagne really made me say that -shame)

- (laughs -well at least I hope so)

- Are you working on some new music?

- Yes I just did a song with Bob Sinclar (it's called Fuck With You, and it's good)

- Oh really? For your album or his?

- His.

- Great! Can't wait to hear that! (for real). (then I said something not really interesting about her label just to keep some credibility -FAIL).

- Do you mind if we take a picture together?

- No that's my pleasure (OMG!)

Picture - Picture - Picture (THANKS @BorisLab)

- Thank you so much Sophie, enjoy the party. Oh and congratulations on the new bay! (my God, yes, I really said that).

And just like that I had met and talked with one of my favorite popstars ever, a woman so insanely beautiful who made some of the best pop songs of the past ten years, which I've listened so many times. Another life-goal achieved! Now onto managing my own music label (and meeting/becoming best friends with Kylie)!!!

I don't know if you've read all that, but if so: thank you, and sorry for all that nonsense.

THANK YOU Marie for the invite! <3

Just in case you missed it earlier

New Nicola Roberts video "Yo-Yo"

2011-11-30T10:51:00.002+01:00

This is the new Nicola Roberts video you probably won't be able to watch here because Vevo sucks. Anyway, if I'm not mistaken, it's a third amazing single in a row for Nicola. And it features a hot piece of model ass. An Nic in a shower. Get watchin' you pervs!

The superhot Dimitri Tikovoi collab will be released as a single that will probably not get to #1 on January 2nd. "The CD single will come with both a studio and live version of the track as well as the demo version of her original album track, sticks + stones" says Nicola's website. Bargain!
And remember, Nic's debut album Cinderella's Eyes is about 345 times better than most other pop records released this year.

[REVIEW & CONTEST] Kylie Minogue releases Aphrodite Les Folies [Live In London] CD + DVD.

2011-11-28T12:10:00.002+01:00

EDIT
THE WINNERS OF THE GIVEAWAY ARE : MOURADLD, DJ AND VITAAMINE!
Congrats to all, now hit me with your your full name and postal address at contact.itpsop@gmail.com so I can send you this wonderful package in time for Christmas!

FACT: Kylie is amazing.
FACT: Her latest album Aphrodite is amazing, cheerful, modern, exciting and super pop.

FACT: Her Aphrodite - Les Folies Tour was probably the most stunningly beautiful, festive, hit-filled and thrilling show I've ever seen.

Let's see:

Now the wonderful 2-hour pop extravaganza is available for you to watch and listen to endlessly. Yup, the watery popfest was filmed in 2D and 3D in London when Kylie played the O2 no less than five times in April 2011. The DVD & Blu-ray formats come along with a 2-CD set comprising the whole show. As usual, Kylie and her team know how to please the fans with those recordings, probably the most beautiful concert film I've seen alongside Jonas Akerlund's film of Madonna's Confessions Tour. The cinematography does the extraordinary stage, costumes, choreographies and lighting justice in any possible way, placing the viewer right in the middle of the arena, in the air with the aerialists, in the central "splashzone" with the lucky (but wet) fans, and of course very close to Kylie herself.

With every number being a highlight in itself, it's hard to decide which moment is the most exciting one of the show. I'll have to go for the incredible Slow (easily one of my favorite songs of hers) starting as a jazzy take on the Body Language single and morphing into an electro monster while the stage revolves in the most amazing way, or the super-joyful (if not a tiny bit cheesy) "Angel" segment which sees Kylie fly over the audience and then perform a perfect cover of Eurythmix's There Must Be An Angel. The finale is of course one of the most breathtaking staging ever done by any touring artist, bringing Vegas, the Cirque du Soleil and top-notch technology together under the same arena roof. If the watery rendition of All The Lovers doesn't make you want to take your clothes off and dance suggestively in your bathroom, you're a lost cause!

My personal experience of Les Folies was and remains an absolute highlight of my all-time concert-going experience, and quite frankly, I even felt quite emotional at some points (the opening, The One, Slow, All The Lovers), caught in between the overall super-joyful feeling of witnessing such an impecable show, and the pride of watching a popstar I've loved for years being so genuinely generous and happy to perform for her fans. Les Folies Tour truly was a renewing of vows between a fantastic and too-often neglected performer and her loyal fans. A declaration of love you're now able to watch over and over. Thank you team Kylie!

CONTEST: Kylie's french label EMI have been nice enough to give me the opportunity to offer 3 DVD/2CD boxsets of Aphrodite Les Folies [Live in London] for you to win. To enter the competition simply leave a comment on this post telling me which song you wish Kylie had done during Les Folies, and why. My three favorite entries will win! Winners will be announced on Saturday here and through Facebook and Twitter. Stay tuned!

CONCOURS: EMI, le label français de Kylie, a la gentillesse de me permettre de vous offrir 3 coffrets DVD-2CD du spectacle Aphrodite Les Folies [Live in London]. Pour participer au concours, laissez un commentaire sous ce billet en m'indiquant quelle chanson Kylie aurait selon vous du ajouter à la setlist du concert, et pourquoi. Mes trois entrées préférées gagneront ! Les gagnants seront annoncés ici, ainsi que sur Facebook et Twitter. Bonne chance!

Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite Les Folies [Live In London], available from Nov. 28 on 2D & 3D Blu-ray & DVD + 2 CDs + digital download. (Parlophone/EMI)

Merci à EMI Music France et Julien Marquant pour ce concours !

[PLAYLIST] Some great songs for November

2011-11-22T11:48:00.001+01:00

The DØ - Slippery Slope (Live at Studio Pigalle)

This is still one of my favorite songs of the past twelve months and this epic 8-minute version makes it even more beautiful and addictive. LØVE!

Little Mix - Don't Let Go

I would LOVE to see those girls win the X Factor this year (except if Misha does), not only because a girl band would be put right in front of the British record-buying public like it's 2002 all over again (Girls Aloud!), but also because they performed one of my favorite songs ever. And what a good performance! You go girls.

Emilie Simon - Mon Chevalier

A beautiful love song by one of France's most interesting female artists, taken for her equally good forthcoming album out on December 5th.

Florence And The Machine - Lover To Lover

Florence seems to be suffering some harsh comments from the press (the French one at least) with her new album Ceremonials, but I'm among those who find it epic, exciting and generally wonderful. This track is a big song that give a great peek of what to expect from the record.

Jenifer - L'amour Fou (Remix by Mr. Waltmann)

A clever and super efficient reworking of Jenifer's new single, taken from her 2010 unfairly unsuccessful LP Appelle-Moi Jen. Clearly worth a purchase, and shameless repeated plays.

Kelly Clarkson - What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)

While the rest of the album is pretty generic and generally unsurprising, this second single (after the quite good Mr. Know It All) has "hit" written all over. Good power pop just as Kelly knows it.

Little Boots - Shake

One of my favorite acts of 2009 is finally back with what seems to be a buzz track from a forthcoming album. So not a real single. Yet it's everything that's good about Victoria. Can't wait for what's to come!

The Saturdays - My Heart Takes Over Remix

Is spite of their album being an authentic crapfest and the "proper" version of the single not being the right one, the girlband we like until Little Mix win the X Factor have good mix of said single. It's a bit more electro, and kind of makes up for the fact they will never make a better song than Higher.

Charlie Winston - Hello Alone

Anyone who liked Charlie's first album will like the new one Running Still, as will those who were not too keen on it. It's a beautiful record that showcases strong songwriting skills and genius interpretation. First single Hello Alone is a good proof of that. Addictive stuff.

Feist - How Come You Never Go There (Clock Opera Remix)

I love the original version that is on the genrally splendid album Metals, but this remix by my beloved Clock Opera takes it to a whole other level. Excellent work!

The Sound Of Arrows - Wonders

A song that's true to its title! I've been waiting for the Sounds' album for almost three years and boy I'm not disappointed. It's pure pop brilliance, with mazing melodies, anthemic choruses and powerful atmospheres. This song is just an example of how fantastic this band is.

The Wanted - Warzone

I HAD to feature the new single by that boyband I ALMOST joined a few weeks ago (read my interview soon to find out). While this song is nowhere near the amazingess of Lose My Mind, it does the job. Plus, there's Max in the video.

Oh My! - Dirty Dancer

My second favorite 2-piece girlband of the year (right after War Of Words) have another great single on their hands! It might not be as addictive as the previous one, it's still way above anything on the latest Saturdays album. Keep an eye on these ones.

Penguin Prison - Golden Train (acoustic)

I tend to think a great song can be played acoustically as well as with a full band and still remain awesome. That's the case with Chris Glover's hell of a track. We shot this version with my dear friends from 3ème Gauche a fe weeks ago in Paris, right after a huge rainstorm that made everything a little more poetic. Great memory.

Brigitte - Coeur de Chewing-Gum

BRIGITTE - COEUR DE CHEWING GUM par 3emebureau

Good thing I can't get enough of the girl's debut album (surely there must be a trend about 2-piece girlbands these days) because it keeps on giving! This new single might not be their best, but the video is cheeky, sexy and deliciously retro. Thumbs up!

Lilly Wood and The Prick live @ Casino de Paris

2011-11-19T16:37:00.002+01:00

Tellement de progrès depuis ce concert du mois de mai au Bataclan. Superbe lightshow, nouveaux arrangements forts et puissants, voix maîtrisée et envoûtante. Belle harmonie de groupe. Intelligente adjonction d'une choriste.

Mais par pitié, que Nili se taise entre les chansons ! Tant d'idiotie, c'est gênant. De "on remercie quand même notre tourneur, même s'il vous arnaque" (Uni-T aura apprécié), à "merci aussi à ceux qui ont des travails (sic) moins gratifiants, au son ..., au backline...", on frissonne d'angoisse et de gêne pour le reste du groupe, Ben le premier, qu'on aimerait plus expansif.

Heureusement qu'il y a la musique, vivement la suite.

PS : c'est vrai que Cinq7 est un super label avec de super personnes dedans. Merci Nili pour cet éclair de lucidité!

Light

Diva!

Tu sais que tu es une popstar quand tu as des confettis à la fin de ton concert

Despite everything, Madonna still IS the Queen

2011-11-14T09:17:00.001+01:00

Madonna, undisputed Queen of all things pop, pictured on November 12th in NYC at the Smirnoff event where she's supposed to choose the dancers for her 2012 tour. Looking flawless. Suck it Rihanna.

(Major heads up to whichever surgeon did that. This is truly a work of art).

About Madonna's Give Me All Your Love leak (and her team's "response")

2011-11-10T09:00:00.002+01:00

Let's make something clear before I even start: Madonna's still the ultimate queen of pop.

Well, that being said, let's focus on the topic of discussion: the leak of a demo version of Madge's new single Give Me All Your Love. It is supposed to be released in February and lead the forthcoming album's campaign. Well, let's be clear: even though it channels party-Madonna and 80s-influenced-Madonna, it's nowhere near the quality requested for the single opening a new era (then again we've had American Life and 4 Minutes in the past...).

Here it is:

The demo definitely has a Martin Solveig-esque feel (not surprising as he's one of the producers enlisted by the former leotard-wearing singer), but sounds pretty flat and boring. It would be OK as a b-side I guess.

So hopefully it will all be reworked before the real version sees the light of day (gets leaked weeks ahead of the release). Remember what the demo for Beat Goes On sounded like (awful), and what the finished track turned up to be (good, or at least way better than anything else on Hard Candy).

Demo:

Finished track:

While I don't really give sh*t about that track (it's a good way to get everyone excited for new material), I'm pretty bummed by Madonna and her camp's reaction, expressed through her manager Guy Oseary's Twitter account earlier today.

Poor Guy really has a tough job speaking in the name of Madge every time something crap happens, and having to deal with the thousands of morons asking for a retweet.

Too bad his position on the matter is just stupid. If a demo leaked a such an early stage, it was most probably by someone pretty close to the recording sessions or the people involved in them. Plus demos rarely escape record labels and if they are ever submitted to them in the first place. So before you launch a little witch hunt party Guy, maybe have a look around, who knows?

Yes, the internet is a bad place where mean people try and ruin artists' lives, boo-ooh. What year is this? 1995? Unfortunately leaks have become almost impossible to avoid for major artists (minus Jay-Z/Kanye recently), so instead of whining about it on Twitter, maybe try and make the best out of it. By offering innovative and clever marketing and ideas, using the power of social networks to emulate the fanbase and keep people interested in the artist. And, since it's out there, listen to what people say about the song itself (my opinion: "not good enough, must do better", thanks for asking).

Maybe that leak (regardless of the song's quality) is the best thing that could happen to Madonna to get people interested in her next album. And of course by that I'm not implying the leak was intentional and comes from her camp... Or maybe am I?

Now let's all listen to Ray Of Light and hope for better days.

AMAZING POP ALERT! War Of Words : Panic & Battleground

2011-11-07T09:00:00.000+01:00

Who cares who War Of Words really are when they have such great songs (actually they are Ali Browning and Lucy Duffield)? Two songs, if I want to be accurate. They're so great they're both being released on Popjustice HiFi, generally amazing pop purveyor Popjustice's label, which already gave us Bright Light Bright Light in the past.

You can learn more about the band by reading all that's written on their Facebook page. There's stuff like that :

"When Abi was younger she wanted to be a pirate, but soon realised this might not practical"

OK.

Panic and Battleground are two instantly catchy, exciting and powerful pop tracks that should help you start the week in style. They produced by La Roux's Ben Langmaid.

I. L.O.V.E.

Listen to Panic

War Of Words - Panic by wearewarofwords

And now treat your ears with Battleground

War Of Words - Battleground by wearewarofwords

Both tracks are out on December 4th and deserve to chart as follow:

- Panic at #1 on week 1 with Battleground at #2

- Battleground at #1 on week 2 with Panic as #2

Unfortunately this is very unlikely to happen.

[GUEST PLAYLIST] Trop Doux in the mix #23

2011-10-17T09:08:00.001+02:00

C'est sympa d'avoir des invités de temps en temps, non ? On peut boire une bière fraîche et écouter du son qui va bien. Après Lara il y quelques jours, j'accueille avec joie l'un de mes twittos préférés, Mr Trop Doux, le genre de garçon bien élevé toujours prompt à balancer un lien lol ou une douceur musicale qui fait mouche. Vous verrez qu'il y a dans sa playlist de bien jolies choses, mais très franchement, autant le laisser présenter sa sélection tout seul.

Guys, this week I'm welcoming one of my favorite people on Twitter, Mr. Trop Doux, which could be translated as "Mr. So Sweet". Yep, his music tastes are indeed quite sweet and nice but also sharp and generally It's Pop-approved. Here's his playlist, which I hope you'll enjoy!

Comme on se retrouve… Trois mois après sa dernière livraison, Monsieur Trop Doux est de retour. On vous passera les multiples péripéties qui ont jalonné ce come-back car le plus important est désormais sous vos yeux et peut-être même déjà dans vos oreilles. Votre humble serviteur est aujourd’hui playlist-maker itinérant, je m’explique : chaque nouvelle playlist sera publiée sur un blog différent, au gré du vent et des envies. Blogueurs de France et de Navarre, n’hésitez donc pas à vous manifester si vous êtes intéressés. Pour cette première, c’est It’s Pop! qui m’accueille à bras ouvert et je l’en remercie grandement. Au programme des hostilités : du lourd, du super lourd et même encore plus que ça. Les premiers extraits des nouveaux albums de Mayer Hawthorne, Marina & The Diamonds, Penguin Prison et Florence + The Machine, le retour de Caribou qu’on doit maintenant appeler Daphni, des remixes en pagaille, un inédit des Daft Punk de 94 et une infinité d’autres douceurs auditives.

Si le retour de vos playlists préférées est une bonne nouvelle, il coïncide néanmoins avec un bien triste événement : comment ne pas rendre hommage à celui qui me faisait hocher la tête dans mon walkman quand j’avais 15 piges et un jogging Sergio Tacchini puis qui a continué à m’accompagner durant de longues années quand mes goûts ont évolué. Trois titres de génie, qui montrent l’étendu du talent de Mehdi et resteront à jamais gravés dans mon histoire de la musique.

Et pour être sûr de ne rien manquer, suivez-moi sur Twitter et sur Facebook.
Artwork by GD Graphisme

LET THE PARTY BEGIN !

Tracklist:

01 - Louis La Roche - The Wall (Shook Remix)

02 - Mayer Hawthorne - The Walk

03 - Alexander feat. RZA - Truth (Special Edit)

04- Bombay Bicycle Club – Shuffle

05 - Justice – Helix

06 -Florence + The Machine - Shake It Out

07 - Urban Cone - Urban Photographer

08 - The Bullitts feat. Jay Electronica & Lucy Liu - Close Your Eyes

09 - Aeroplane - We Can't Fly (Extended Drums Mix)

10 - Marina & The Diamonds - Radioactive (Acoustic)

11 - Daphni (aka Caribou) - Yes I Know

12 - Shake Aletti - Inside Out (His Majesty Andre Remix)

13 - Lana Del Rey - Video Games

14 - Penguin Prison - Don't Fuck With My Money

15 - MA - Liko Lene Lisa

16 - The Quantic Soul Orchestra feat. Alice Russel - Left Right

17 - Daft Punk – Drive

18 - Carte Blanche - The Molecules

19 - Wayne Shorter - Footprints (DJ Mehdi Remix)

20 - 113 - Les Princes De La Ville

Album round-up: the case of Nicola Roberts plus some others I haven't had time to review before

2011-10-10T08:00:00.001+02:00

Albums: they're like singles, but longer. They last about 45 minutes in general. some are good and exciting thoughout, some are a neverending showers of crap (LMFAO I'm looking at you). Some were released recently and I didn't get time to review them properly. Here's somewhat of a round-up.

Nicola Roberts - Cinderella's Eyes

Quite tragically, since Girls Aloud members chose to embrace solo careers during the band's "break", people seem to have believed Cheryl Cole's ear-threatening marathons of musical crap were the only records worth buying. How wrong! Nadine's own album Insatiable was a trainwreck as far a everything but the music was concerned, but it had some serious tunes. It sold a bit more than 5000 copies on its first week last year, while Cheryl's ridiculous compilations of sick Taio Cruz leftovers (except the first three singles, let's be honest) sold several hundred thousands.

Nicola Roberts is the third one to try and make an impact on UK charts. Well, there ain't no justice in this world, ladies. Her own Cinderella's Eyes only shifted a little over 8000 copies but it shouldn't occult the fact it is a great pop record. I've said numerous time how much I love the first to singles (Beat Of My Drum and Lucky Day, which will end up in my 2011 top 10 for sure), and they fit the record perfectly, leading the way to an above-average number of clever and ambitious tunes. In fact the first 5 tracks on the record (the two singles + Yo-Yo, Cinderella's Eyes and Porcelain Heart) make a statement all by themselves: Nicola Roberts is one hell of a popstar. Thank God the goodness goes beyond those few songs, and the rest shows consistency as well as interesting tryouts, such as I or Sticks+Stones.

The list of producers and writers (Dimitri From Paris, Metronomy, Diplo, Dragonette etc) could seem like the must-have list for anyone who wanted to produce a trendy indie-pop record but the results tend to prove Nicola knew what she was doing all along and is a bit more clever than most popstrells in the game.

Overall the record is ambitious and maybe a bit ahead of the current trend is mainstream pop which is basically "let's throw some shit BEP-like beats together, a layer of noisy synths, some lyrics about bein' in the club with the ladies etc" and we're all set. Most of all it's not what people were expecting from a member of Girls Aloud. What people expect from a member of Girls Aloud going solo is basically Cheryl Cole. Nicola isn't that kind. 8/10 (+1 for the artwork).

Orelsan - Le Chant des Sirènes

The last time I listen to a rap album from beginning to end was when I bought Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP back in 2000 during a summer trip in Germany. I was young, I needed some street cred. Well 2011 is the year when that happened again. Except now I'm not even after street cred anymore. I like girlbands mind you.

Whether you understand French or not Orelsan's new record is shockingly brilliant and exciting. With his slightly electro-ish instru and razorsharp lyrics he kills it most of the time. I'm less excited when he tries to "sing", but at list he didn't enlist every r&bitch singer n the country to sing his choruses. Good point.

Best tracks: Rien Ne M'étonne, Mauvaise Idée, Finir Mal, Des Trous Dans La Tête, 1990/2010, Suicide Social. (listen from the player below)

Frankmusik - Do It In The Am

Well, I was excited for this one. First listen was pretty much like a cold shower. While first to singles Fear Inside and Do It In The Am are fantastic (especially the former), new single No ID is so bad it hurts. Things get better at times (Running, Struck By Lightning) but most tracks on here fail to showcase Vince's talent and production skills. Deception!

Skip The Use - Sound From The Shadow EP

This french band is just like a sonic slap in your face. Having seen them perform several times in the past few months made me confident about anything they would eventually release. Initially they were set to release an album but the project was postponed to early 2012, so in the meantime Mat and his bandmates are releasing this hi-energy EP of their own material complete with a great cover of Blur's classic Song 2. This guys truly have potential to make it big and are that kind of act who will win people with their live shows. Look out for Skip The Use, there's more to come.

[EXCLU] Une après midi en studio avec Revolver (interview)

2011-10-07T18:39:00.000+02:00

Bonjour, nous sommes Revolver, et nous aimons faire des têtes chafouines.

Merci à 3emeGauche.tv pour leur excellent travail derrière la caméra et la table de montage. Comme d'habitude en fait !

En 2009, Revolver a surpris et charmé un large public avec la sortie de son premier album intitulé Music For A While, un disque frais et savamment produit qui rappelait la pop des Beatles, de Radiohead ou d’Elliot Smith.

Ambroise, Christophe et Jérémie ont depuis beaucoup tourné, offrant à un nombre toujours croissant de spectateurs leurs pop songs intelligentes dans un spectacle séduisant qui les a menés au delà des scènes hexagonales en Angleterre et même aux Etats Unis.

Nous avons eu la chance de rencontrer le groupe en studio, alors qu’il finissait de travailler sur son second album, à paraître début 2012. C’est une formation sereine et satisfaite de son travail et impatiente de reprendre la route qui nous a reçus et nous a permis d’écouter en exclusivité quatre titres brillants et maîtrisés, pop et instantanément accrocheurs. Ils n’auront aucun mal à séduire encore plus largement que ceux du premier album ! Je ne peux en révéler davantage, sachez simplement qu'ils sont plutôt uptempo dans l'ensemble et qu'un vrai, beau slow s'est glissé dans mes oreilles comme au bon vieux temps des boums !

Revolver a l’immense qualité d’être composé de trois artistes intelligents qui semblent savoir où ils vont, qui utilisent avec malice leurs influences et qui ne sont pas loin, à en juger par ce que nous avons pu écouter, d’avoir composé un album en or. Nous jugerons dans quelques mois, mais franchement sur ce coup là vous pouvez nous faire confiance !

Mec trop concentré. Groupe.

http://3emegauche.tv - @3emeGauche - @itspop

[LARA'S CORNER] Découvrez "As True As Troilus" by Farewell Poetry

2011-09-30T18:04:00.000+02:00

Cette semaine j'ai l'honneur et le plaisir de recevoir mon amie et ancienne partner in crime d'OWNImusic Lara (@larachacha). Elle vous fait découvrir un groupe que je ne vous aurais sans doute pas proposé ici, mais comme d'habitude avec elle, la qualité est au rendez-vous. Vous pouvez y aller les yeux fermés !

As True As Troilus by FareWell Poetry

http://soundcloud.com/farewellpoetry

C'est une œuvre étrange. Entre nostalgie, interrogation et inquiétude, ce poème récité sur des consonances expérimentales s'adresse au tréfonds de notre conscience. Entre performance artistique et morceau de musique, notre cœur balance.

L'écoute qui demande du temps et de l'ouverture d'esprit permet à la musique de faire son effet: l’œuvre ne laisse pas indifférent et les réactions des uns et des autres sont violemment opposées.

A propos de "As True As Troilus"

'As True As Troilus' a été enregistré et mixé entre Leeds et Paris. D'abord joué en studio dans des conditions proches du live, chaque instrument a été ensuite diffusé et ré-enregistré dans l'église Saint Margaret of Antioch de Leeds en utilisant le procédé du "mur du son" afin d'ajouter une réverbération et une acoustique naturelle aux pistes brutes.

'As True As Troilus' emprunte son titre et sa mythologie au récit de ‘Troilus and Criseyde’, un poème du 14ème siècle de l’écrivain anglais Geoffrey Chaucer, un faux mythe grec avec des origines médiévales, dans lequel le personnage principal Troilus tombe amoureux de la Troyienne Cressida qui finit par le quitter pour un soldat Grec appelé Diomède. Le narrateur de ‘As True As Troilus’ emploie ce mythe pour explorer sa propre mythologie romantique, se servant des personnages, de leurs corps et des situations pour exprimer sa propre détresse, illustrant les étapes de la destruction de son histoire avec des tableaux du conte Troyen. Le mythe comme outil de compréhension universel du personnel et du spécifique.

'As True As Troilus' est extrait de l'album 'Hoping for the Invisible to Ignite' (sortie officielle le 26 Septembre 2011).

FareWell Poetry - As True As Troilus - TRAILER from FareWell Poetry on Vimeo.

Interview: "créer quelque chose d'un peu hors format"

Qui êtes-vous ?

Nous sommes un collectif regroupant des musiciens parisiens (Frédéric D. Oberland, Eat Gas, Colin Johnco, Stanislas Grimbert, Stéphane Pigneul) et une poète-cinéaste anglo-saxonne (Jayne Amara Ross). Nous invitons souvent d'autres musiciens à nous rejoindre sur scène ou en studio (tels que Gaspar Claus, Christelle Lassort, Uspudo, Bérangère Maximin, Dave Olliffe, David Moore, etc).

Comment le projet de FareWell Poetry a-t-il vu le jour ?

On a démarré FareWell Poetry il y a un peu plus de deux ans et demi. A notre premier concert nous étions trois sur scène. Puis comme on avait ce désir du "collectif", on a contacté d'autres amis musiciens dont on appréciait le talent et on s'est attelé à la tâche. On a beaucoup travaillé en studio, expérimenté, fait des concerts, crée de nouveaux films, tenté des choses, un peu comme dans un laboratoire, sans pression autre que d'essayer de se faire plaisir et d'aller aux bouts de nos idées. C'est très excitant pour nous d'avoir le sentiment de créer quelque chose d'un peu hors format, au-delà d'un concert traditionnel, où le rapport au public passe aussi à un moment au travers d'un film ou du spoken-word.

Quelles sont vos influences musicales ?

Dans le désordre : James Joyce, Maya Deren, Set Fire To Flames, Anne Sexton, Bela Tarr, "Coral Sea" de Patti Smith & Kevin Shields, les boîtes à musique, Dirty Three, Francisco Goya, Captain Beefheart, l'électricité et tout matériel analogique, Lord Buckley, Max Richter, la série SYR de Sonic Youth, Robert Wyatt, les films Tri-X super 8, les sous-vêtements Tie & Die, le D19 et autres révélateurs à haut contraste, Ovide, Philippe Grandrieux, William Shakespeare, Earth, Bitches Brew de Miles Davis, Sally Mann, Allen Ginsberg, les premiers Pink Floyd, "L'Art des Bruits" de Luigi Russolo, le field recording, ( ) de Sigur Ros, Melody Nelson de Serge Gainsbourg, Le Cantique des Cantiques, Einstürzende Neubauten, la psychogeographie, "Zidane" de Mogwai, "Dead Man" de Neil Young, la voix de Gille Deleuze, Carla Bley, Sun Ra, "Le Vent de la Nuit" de John Cale, The Ex & Tom Cora, "Misery is a Butterfly" de Blonde Redhead, Oren Ambarchi, Bing and Ruth, Arvo Pärt, le bon vin rouge et les drogues heureuses, nos amis, nos rêves, et parfois nos pires cauchemars.

Quel est votre objectif, professionnellement parlant ?

Nous n'avons absolument aucun "objectif professionnel". On essaie simplement de faire ce que l'on aime, et quasi exclusivement : jouer, tourner, s'amuser, expérimenter, se dépasser, etc. Nous travaillons dur, mais si nous souhaitions gagner beaucoup d'argent et se payer des survêtements Juicy Couture par exemple, nous aurions choisi autre chose. C'est une forme de sacerdoce artisanal bien plus qu'un métier et un train de vie confortable. De toute façon c'est la crise, autant essayer de vivre pleinement, non ?

A qui exactement vous adressez-vous avec ce projet ? Aux amateurs de musiques, de cinéma ou d’art en général ?

A tout le monde. Nous ne classifions rien. Les gens ne sont pas des cibles commerciales, nous ne vendons pas des yaourts ou des produits d'entretien. Ceux qui apprécient notre projet reviennent souvent nous voir en concert, nous envoie des mots gentils, nous encouragent, nous aident et nous offre un peu d'eux-mêmes. Et ça nous suffit amplement. Ceci étant dit, si un mécène souhaitait financer nos prochaines oeuvres sans contrepartie, par amour de l'art, nous sommes ouverts à lui offrir un peu de notre vin pour agrémenter son eau.

Quelle est votre stratégie pour attirer l’attention de ces publics très différents ?

Aucune.

FareWell Poetry - Persephone - TRAILER from FareWell Poetry on Vimeo.

Votre projet étant intrinsèquement lié à l’image, comptez-vous utiliser/optimiser toutes les possibilités offertes par les nouvelles technologies afin de promouvoir votre projet ? Lesquelles ?

En réalité, nous sommes plutôt un collectif "vieille école". Les films sont en argentique, tournés artisanalement, développés à la main. Nous n'utilisons pas d'ordinateur sur scène -si ce n'est pour diffuser une copie numérique de nos films- toute la musique est jouée en direct, avec de vrais instruments. Les nouvelles technologies ont donc relativement peu de place dans la base de nos créations.

Toutefois, nous avons récemment collaboré avec le Collectif MU (l'équipe qui organise le très beau festival Filmer La Musique) sur une application iPhone autour de la face A 'As True As Troilus' de notre disque à venir. Nous avons découpé notre pièce sonore en cinq chapitres au sein desquels une secousse sèche du téléphone permet de lancer ou de stopper un instrument. Son orientation horizontale spatialise certaines pistes et son orientation verticale permet d’ouvrir le micro afin de moduler les sons ambiants et de les intégrer au mix général. On a pensé ça un peu comme de la psychogéographie sonore ; on déambule en agitant son téléphone, on choisit son territoire, son chapitre, on expérimente. On a pris beaucoup de plaisir à mettre cette aplication en place, bien que l'on regrette qu'elle soit limitée pour l'instant aux seuls possesseurs de iPhone, et qu'elle nécessite un casque. L'idéal serait de diffuser ça via des ghetto-blasters portables fournis gracieusement à tout-un-chacun. En attendant, l'application sera disponible gratuitement le 30 septembre prochain.

Quelle utilisation faites-vous des réseaux sociaux ?

Le web a bouleversé l'économie et la diffusion des œuvres artistiques. Internet est devenu un outil de diffusion quasi infini qui permet à beaucoup de choses d'exister en dehors des circuits traditionnels et de tenir informé les gens qui le souhaitent au quatre coins de la planète. De notre côté, nous utilisons volontiers en ce moment des outils comme Soundcloud, Vimeo, Mixcloud qui permettent de diffuser en streaming du contenu en haute qualité. Nous avons crée notre site internet nous-mêmes il y a quelques mois. Nous sommes aussi sur facebook, c'est plutôt pratique pour tenir au courant des concerts et de l'actualité à venir. Malgré cela, le contenu - dans notre cas la musique, la poésie, les films - nous importe bien plus que la manière dont il est diffusé virtuellement.

A l'occasion de la sortie de leur album "Hoping For The Invisible To Ignite", Farewell Poetry sera en concert le 30 Septembre à 20h30 dans l'église St Merry.

Retrouvez Farewell poetry sur : site officiel, facebook, myspace, vimeo, soundcloud

Album cover (extrait du film 'As True As Troilus') : Jayne Amara Ross

Dessins originaux : Alice Lewis

Graphisme : David Bart

Photos live : Pamela Maddaleno

Stream the new Feist album "Metals"

2011-09-28T16:34:00.000+02:00

Before I tell you more about it and meeting Feist the other day in a incredible setting in Paris, here's a way to listen to Metals, her third album, out on October 3rd. Nice, right?

Could Christophe Willem be that Cool male popstar we've been waiting for? (Probably).

2011-09-20T13:33:00.001+02:00

There aren't many male popstars who can rival their female counterparts in the pop game. While we have the Kylies, the Madonnas, the Beyoncés or the Rachel Stevens (insert LOL here), I can't really think of a male artist who's able to offer ballsy, sexy electro-infused pop coupled with strong visuals and big arena shows. There was Robbie Williams at some point but he was aiming at a more "rock" image, wasn't he?

Great pop guys seem to be more indie, like Bright Light Bright Light, Penguin Prison, Erik Hassle, or even Hurts. Jake Shears from Scissor Sisters is utterly amazing but not (yet) a solo artist, and Mika turned out to be shit after just one album. Simon Curtis is like a baby Britney with a penis, but I'm still waiting for him to do something with that (other than releasing albums with nothing more). Justin Timberlake would rather play the "actor" card than get his nice ass back into a recording studio.

Actually if you're a guy in pop and you want to be successful you either have to be:

1) in a boyband

2) a total bellend doing awful electro-RnB like Jason Derulo, Taio Cruz, Pitbull, Will.I.Am, David Guetta, Usher etc

3) a rocker (note that it's ok to be "rock". You're just not pop then)

FEAR NOT I MIGHT HAVE A SOLUTION!!!!

Even more surprisingly, that response to all the Will.i.am crap lying around might be coming from France. I know. I told you several times about Christophe Willem, especially when he released his generally great second album Caféine back in 2009. Being a fan of It's Pop!-approved female pop, especially Madonna and Kylie, he did various interesting things in that direction, like covering their songs, sort-of-dueting, or working with the latter's longtime collaborator Steve Anderson. Apart from being totally amazing, Mr. Anderson has worked his magic on all of Kylie's tours of the last decade, and gave her songs some pretty perfect makeovers when needed.

Now Christophe is getting ready to release his third record, entitled Prismophonic. I was lucky enough to be in attendance when he premiered the first single Cool at the Sony Music Convention a few days ago, and what struck me was: the total catchiness of the song, the perfect production, the daring sound for a guy. Cool is a GREAT pop song that gives me faith and full confidence in the forthcoming LP, which will see the light of day on November 21st. From the "ooh-ooh ooh" intro, to the verses leading to a huge frenglish chorus, it has everything it needs to become a real hit. Hopefully it will.

The single premiered (and was released) today, and it's already climbing the iTunes top 10, being at #7 as I'm typing (Tuesday Sept 20, 1pm Paris time). A number one hit on its way? Yes please!

Alternative link for non-French readers:

[PLAYLIST] Some great songs for September

2011-09-16T13:14:00.000+02:00

Yay, everyone's back to school/university/work but I'm sure some of you forgot to load their iPods with good tunes. Here are some suggestions you might like and others you might not.

The Rapture - How Deep Is Your Love?

How I forgot to post about that song earlier is beyond me. AMAZING. In my top 5 of the year for sure.

Caotico - Brains Out featTove Styrke

TOVE STYRKE !!!!!!!!! <3. Great song.

Orelsan - Suicide Social

OrelSan - Suicide Social par 3emebureau

French rap at its best. If you understand the lyrics, you're in for a big slap in the face.

Hands - No Romance

Nice indie electro-pop from Norway. Thumbs up!

Kasabian - Days Are Forgotten

Velociraptor! is out on September 19, you should get it cause it's really good.

One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful

I KNOW they're a teenage boyband. But the song is catchy, right? (SCREW YOU VIVO, sorry you have to head to YouTube to watch the vid.)

M83 - Midnight City

What a tune! Great electro-pop from France. Get it now.

Madonna - She's Not Me (Guyom's Express Mashup)

Madonna - She's Not Me (Guyom'S Xpress Mashup) by Guyomremixes

The original was OK, but that remix turns it into an awesome song! Plus it's a free download!

Penguin Prison - Fair Warning

This guy has one of the best albums of the year under his belt (out October 24). More about that soon.

Darren Hayes - Black Out The Sun

After the total awesomeness that was Talk Talk Talk, this new single makes me want the album Secret Codes and Battleships more than pint of beer at a festival.

Florence And The Machine announces new album Ceremonials and premieres single Shake It Out

2011-09-15T11:09:00.001+02:00

As I said a few weeks back, Florence And The Machine's track What The Water Gave Me was just a taster of things to come. Now we have the proper first single off her upcoming second album Ceremonials, out Oct 31st. It's called Shake It Out and once again, it a powerful and exciting pop song.

Above is the arwork for the album, which kind of reminds me of Madonna's Hung Up single cover.

And the font is totally Goldfrapp Supernature, right?

Florence having the pop goddesses shining down on her? I LITERALLY CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS ALBUM! See the tracklisting after the jump!

Tracklist :

Only If For A Night

Shake It Out

What The Water Gave Me

Never Let Me Go

Breaking Down

Lover To Lover

No Light, No Light

Seven Devils

Heartlines

Spectrum

All This And Heaven Too

Leave My Body

What The Water Gave Me

Deluxe edition 2nd CD

Remain Nameless

Strangeness & Charm

Bedroom Hymns

What The Water Gave Me (demo)

Landscape (demo)

Heartlines (acoustic)

Shake It Out (acoustic)

Breaking Down (acoustic)

The new Coldplay song is a rip-off of... a Coldplay song!

2011-09-12T14:57:00.000+02:00

The new Coldplay single Paradise is good and all, no problem about that. Well it's not the most exciting thing ever, I have to admit. Here it is if you haven't heard it already:

The only thing that tingled me when I first listened to it on the street this morning was that it reminded me of another song. It was striking, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

Then I did. It's simply another Coldplay song. Well not exactly.

Remember Natalie Imbruglia? She has some amazing songs. She almost released her latest album two years ago. Unfortunately, the ill-fated Come To Life never really saw the light of day despite it being pretty awesome. And guess what? Three songs on that album have writing credits by Chris Martin or Coldplay altogether.

One of those songs is called "Fun". It was written by all four Coldplay guys and sounds like this:

extract from the "Come To Life" Wikipedia page, with the writing & production credits for each album track.

Now please compare its melody (for example between 0:12 and 0:18) to that of Paradise (for example between 0:19 and 0:33). Striking, right?

So, what's the story behind that? Did Chris and his mates feel like recycling a bit? Did they aim at paying the Great Natalie Imbruglia a worldwide tribute, to make up for her album not being released? Did they just act a bit lazy for that new release of theirs? I'm wondering.

Anyway, I'd love to have your opinion on that matter!

[EXCLUSIVE] The Kooks - Junk Of The Heart (Happy): acoustic session

2011-09-12T14:03:00.000+02:00

My great friends at 3èmeGauche TV and I were lucky enough last week to spend a Kooksified few days! First we attended a great show at La Flèche d'Or, one of Paris' most famous indie venues, where the band played an awesome 1-hour plus set comprising most of their past hits (all my faves at least) and some new tracks. Cause yeah, Luke Pritchard and his mates are releasing their third studio album today (Sept 12), and let me tell you something: these guys know how to write a song and drive a crowd crazy.

Junk Of The Heart is a perfectly timed and well-written collection of catchy and clever pop songs that showcase the band's ability to capture the spirit of pop: effectiveness, "complex simplicity" and unashamed pleasure. Tracks like Eskimo Kiss, Is It Me or How'd You Like That are immediate favorites, but here it's hard to find a track you won't like.

The second part of our week with The Kooks consisted of a more intimate moment with the band, since Luke and bass player Pete Denton joined us for an interview, followed by an acoustic session of current single Junk Of The Heart (Happy) by Luke alone on guitar. While you'll be able to watch the whole filmed interview in a few days (and see me make a fool of myself when Luke understands "sex" when I say the word "success"), you can now enjoy that intimate moment of music courtesy of 3èmeGauche TV's hard work over the weekend. Is there a better way to start the week?

Setlist, Flèche d'Or Paris Sept 7, 2011

[ABOUT A SONG] Kylie's Cant Get You Out Of My Head is 10 years old. And a classic.

2011-09-08T17:38:00.002+02:00

What makes a pop song a classic? Simplicity, modernity, a sense of risk and of course, a decent popstar. Kylie Minogue probably knows that better than any other pop artist, as she managed to get the biggest hit of her career almost 15 years into it, with a song that will forever define her and the beginning of the 21st century.

Can't Get You Out Of My Head was released on September 8, 2001 and went on to become a worldwide smash hit, being #1 in 40 countries, and getting her her biggest hit in the US since The Locomotion.

What made this particular song such a smash was undoubtedly the combination of Kylie herself (still hot from all that goldpant thing from a few months earlier), a video that repositioned her as an ultimate pop icon, a melody that you, err, can't get out of your head, and a string of visually stunning performances to accompany it. Oh, and perhaps that white top of hers.

Her's a selection of Can't Get You Out Of My Head performances, with different versions and even an interesting cover.

Happy Birthday and congrats, all involved!

The original video

Can't Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head (New Order mashup) - Brit Awards Performances, 2002

First performance during the On a Night Like This Tour, a few months before the actual release, 2001

KylieFever2002 version, 2002

Money Can't Buy Show, 2004

Showgirl Tour version, 2005

Showgirl Homecoming Tour version, 2006

Boombox/Can't Get You Out Of My Head mash-up, X2008Tour version, 2008

Acoustic version, live at the BBC, 2011

Les Folies: Aphrodite Tour version (Soulwax Kyluss Remix), 2011

Cover

Coldplay (Live at Glastonbury 2005)

[INTERVIEW] Elisa Tovati / Tom Dice : histoire d'un tube

2011-09-06T17:01:00.001+02:00

Il nous faut, le duo d’Elisa Tovati et Tom Dice, est l’un des tubes de cet été (toujours 4ème de l’airplay, et 9ème sur iTunes), et les deux artistes nous l’avaient interprété en version acoustique il y a quelques semaines. Ils nous expliquent aujourd’hui comment cette chanson a vu le jour, en quelques heures de studio.

Cette rencontre a également été l’occasion de discuter avec Elisa de son nouvel album Le Syndrôme de Peter Pan, de ses influences musicales, de ses coups de coeurs et de ses projets, notamment au cinéma.

Interview: Loïc Dumoulin-Richet
Cadreurs : Boris Labourguigne, Pierre Maurel, Thomas Burgess
Montage: Boris Labourguigne
Merci à Elisa Tovati, Tom Dice et Delphine Caurette.

A UK Rock day with Kasabian and Carl Barat, just like that.

2011-09-02T09:00:00.001+02:00

"Fire" was the goodnight kiss

So ok today (which won't mean anything if you read that later, so let's say "on Thursday, Sept 1st) was one of those days. The cool kind. First I got to attend a super private show by UK rockers and weird hairstyle sporters Kasabian, who are starting promo for their upcoming fourth studio album Velociraptor (out Sept. 19). They played a 5-track semi-acoustic gig at their label's magnificent new headquarters (Sony) for an audience consisting of staff, hardcore fans and well, people like me, the kind you always wonder why they're here ;-).

Thing is I LOVE this band. Their previous record West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum is a personal favorite of mine and guess what, I was in luck tonight as they played four tracks from that particular record (out of 5). Weirdly so I might add as I thought this showcase would feature a bunch of new tracks. But apart from the single Days Are Forgotten, it wasn't what happened. Someone from the label told me they feared videos would leak and ruin the surprise... Well that sounds a bit strange to me but hey, I'm not doing their PR am I?

(That's Days Are Forgotten)

Well these guys certainly deliver, and i particularly liked the how exciting the songs still were in a more acoustic setting. If I had one criticism to make, I'd say they could have stayed a bit longer. But let's not get too picky.

I was probably on a themed day, since the end of the evening was even rockier. You might know that I'm lucky enough to participate in a very cool radio show called #CritiquesZik on national radio Le Mouv, a show hosted by the amazing Laura Leishman. What we basically do for a whole hour is we play some new tracks and grade them from 0 to 10. And we try to say relevant things. It's not always the case but at least we have fun. Well tonight was particularly cool as just minutes after I said what I like most about Jay-Z is Beyoncé, or something like this, guess who poped in our studio? None other than Mr. Carl Barat himself. Yep the one from The Libertines. Pretty cool, right? I do think so myself. Nice and chatty, Carl joined us and graded tracks with us, while speaking his best French.

Fans of The Barat, you'll be happy to learn he's working on a new album in between writing an opera that will be shown in Paris next year.

Oh hey radio team plus Carl and manager! And my red pants.

[HOT HOT HOT] Rover - Aqualast

2011-08-24T12:46:00.000+02:00

La révélation de la rentrée s'appelle Rover. Ou plutôt Timothée, si l'on choisit de considérer l'homme à la tête du trio scénique.

Il a suffit de quelques titres interprétés d'une voix puissante et envoûtante, qui ont mis tout le monde d'accord à la soirée de son label (Cinq7) au début de l'été, pour que toute la salle bruisse d'excitation pour cet artiste qui a tout pour séduire un plus large public dans les mois à venir.

Rover - Aqualast by Cinq7

Le premier EP du groupe sort le 3 octobre, et il s'agit là d'un des meilleurs projets qu'il m'ait été donné d'écouter cette année. En seulement quatre titres, Rover pose les bases d'un style assuré et de titres qui flirtent avec la perfection. On adore Aqualast (en écoute ci-dessus), une merveille qui rappelle Radiohead et Tonight, très coldwave, dont la rythmique secoue intelligemment l'EP. Birds et Joy sont elles aussi des réussites totales, l'une plutôt rock et dotée d'une montée explosive, l'autre une courte ballade acoustique qui conclue parfaitement ce court avant-goût d'un album (très) attendu pour 2012.

D'ici là procurez vous ce splendide EP, et n'hésitez pas à aller voir le groupe sur scène (dates ici)

Une interview de Rover, dans ce reportage sur la soirée Cinq7 (et même que vous pourrez me voir me débattre avec un Nili de Lily Wood en "grande forme", et des Naive New Beaters plutôt... sympa!)

Une vidéo de Rover en live aux Francofolies de la Rochelle :

---

Guys, I don't often praise French acts, but this one has to be one my favorite new artists. Rover is in fact singer Timothée, flanked by Dider and Arnaud on stage. Their debut EP is out on October 3rd and is all sorts of amazing. First single Aqualast is a haunting electric ballad that is reminiscent of non-boring Radiohead songs, while Tonight is a much more up-tempo and cold-wavy track that hits all the right buttons.
You can watch and listen to some stuff above, and even catch me interviewing some bands in the first video...

Florence And The Machine is back with new sex-like track "What The Water Gave Me". (JOY)

2011-08-23T17:33:00.002+02:00

I've been lucky enough to be given an early access to the new Florence And The Machine song What The Water Gave Me, and I guess it's faire to say I haven't been listening to anything else lately.

The fact Florence is back just one day after Marina premiered her new single, right after Will Young released his new album and I got an e-mail telling me I would get a promo copy of Nicola's album probably makes this week the best one in pop of the whole year.

Florence's debut album Lungs was such an impressive record it was always going to be hard to topple it. It's probably the most difficult thing to do for a singer: to try and equal the success of a smash debut. Well I guess Cheryl Cole never had this problem...

Lungs was an intense journey in the world of Florence Welch that gave us proper superstar status in less than a few months.

Now she is quite surprisingly back with a new song (single? buzz track?) called What The Water Gave Me, a songs fans already know because she sung it during her tour. I didn't. I was ill the day she performed in Paris, let's not talk about it please. Whereas Marina surprised everybody with a rather unexpected dancey sound, we're in familiar Flo-territory here, as the track has an immediate feel of this unique artist. The vocals are as powerful and subtle as ever, the song progresses into an epic drumming-heavy affair that climaxes with the last chorus before coming to an end with a lighter piano-driven melody. This song is pretty much like sex actually.

I'm told the album is coming our way very soon (I heard November). The single will be available tomorrow (Wednesday Aug 24) to download from iTunes, Amazon and all.

Et voilà!

Update : new album out November 7!

Marina is following her own path. Way ahead of the competition.

2011-08-22T15:59:00.001+02:00

Continuing on the brilliance of the first part of Fear & Loathing, Marina kind of surprisingly dropped a new proper single today. Radioactive is a dancey, synthy and totally brilliant because it sounds like an acceptable evolution of Marina And The Diamonds, and not an opportunistic stab at trying to sound relevant.

Sure, those who liked her for being an popstar in disguise and who considered her a quality guilty pleasure will be disappointed and even angry at her for pulling the dance card. To those people I'd say she is still building her universe and making it evolve along with her, and however "current" this song may sound, it's still totally Marina and quite undeniably a return in top form.

I've said it countless times already, but Marina is one of the very few major popstars of our time. Her journey so far has been very exciting and I can't wait to see what she's got in store for her second album.

PS: I love the fact that she gives her first label Neon Gold (whose blogis one of the best things on the internet) a shout-out during the middle eight.

August 16: Bow down to the Queen

2011-08-16T18:02:00.001+02:00

Happy 53rd birthday, Madonna.

Queen of pop, icon and inspiration.
Now have a piece of cake and go back to recording that new album of yours.

What are my 3 favorite Madonna songs, you're asking?

Well probably those:

Ray Of Light

Vogue

Express Yourself / Nothing Really Matters

Nicola Roberts, I love you in more ways than you can ever imagine.

2011-08-12T15:07:00.001+02:00

The video for Nicola Roberts' second single Lucky Day (Out Sept 18th).

- One of the very best pop tunes of the year according to a very serious survey conducted by me on a population composed of me.

- It was written by none other than one of the best pop bands ever : Dragonette (according to the same survey, and proved by this and that).

- It features various effects that look "so 2001" they make the whole thing totally amazing.

- There's a presence of sperms at some point. Why? Why not?

- Nicola isn't wearing any pants. Why would she, she's a fucking major popstar.

- Her album Cinderella's Eyes is shaping up to be a milestone in 2011 pop. Suck it Cheryl Cole.

Wanna play a game? Spot the differences between this version of the video and the raw edit of it I posted 2 weeks ago.

Wanna open for Nerina Pallot in London?

2011-08-11T23:26:00.003+02:00

Well you might. Nerina Pallot, the artist responsible for one of my favorite albums of the year is offering the support slot at her Shepherds Bush Empire concert in London on October 6th.

You want to try? All you need to do is cover Nerina's new single Turn Me On Again (out Aug 22), as a response to the video below:

Then send it to Nerina via her YouTube account (as a response to the video or through a message). It can be with a band, solo, instrumental or acapella, pretty much any which way you want to as Scissor Sisters would say. You need to be older than 18 yo and be able to play a 20-minute slot.

Sounds amazing, right?

In other news, Nerina just tweeted the following:

AZ is her label in France : "have you heard the french versions of "Turn Me On Again" and "Put Your Hands Up"?

As I was surprised by the news, i asked her about it, to which she replied:

"Yes, they were translated by Sophie Delila, who's fantastic. PYHU is now "Essaie Encore" (Try Again) and TMOA is now "Comme Ca" (Like this)

How amazing is that? In case you're wondering who Sophie Delila is, here's some info.

So, in a nutshell:

1) Nerina Pallot is amazing
2) You could end up on stage at one of London's most iconic venues to open for her
3) We'll soon hear her tracks in French (I'm working on that!)
4) Sophie Delila sounds good

--

Si vous ne connaissez pas encore Nerina Pallot, ce sera bientôt chose faite, puisque son label français (AZ) semble décidé à la lancer sur le marché hexagonal avec son 4ème album studio Year Of The Wolf. Pour l'occasion l'artiste anglaise a ré-enregistré les deux premiers singles de l'album en français, aidée à l'écriture par Sophie Delila. A noter que le français de Nerina est parfait!

Par ailleurs l'artiste propose un concours pour le moins intéressant pour les musiciens amateurs ou confirmés. L'idée? Enregistrer une cover du titre Turn Me On Again (voir vidéo ci-dessus) puis la poster sur la page YouTube de Nerina. Le gagnant aura l'honneur de faire la première partie de l'artiste sur la scène mythique du Shepherd's Bush Empire de Londres le 6 octobre prochain. Seules conditions: être majeur et capable d'assurer 20 minutes sur scène. Solo, en groupe, acapella, ou instrumental, vous êtes libre d'interprêter le titre comme bon vous semble! Vous avez jusqu'au 16 Septembre pour participer. On se voit là-bas ?

Marina & The Diamonds, no Electra Heart, well not really, is back. Sort of.

2011-08-08T18:27:00.000+02:00

Musical philosopher and largely underrated pop singer Marina Diamandis, better known as Marina and the Diamonds warned her Twitter followers earlier today that something would be happening at 4pm UK time. "What could it be?" I wondered, quite excited. A new single? A free track? An album announcement? A wedding proposal (to me, obviously)?

Then, 10 minutes after 4pm UK time (that's 5pm Paris time) this happened:

That's a tweet. It led to that:

A VIDEO! Of Marina! Featuring a new song! The whole thing is entitled "Part 1: Fear And Loathing" and is the first one of a three-part project to be unveiled over the coming weeks. As Marina told Popjustice, it's not a single :

It’s not a single, it’s just an album track. And basically Electra Heart is a story. I don’t even know if it’s going to take the form of an album yet, but it’s a really cinematic 70s Americana-type film and each part of the story comes in Part One, Part Two, Part Three. The song that’s going online today is Part One. It’s quite hard to explain because I think a lot of people will think Electra Heart is an alter ego or something but she’s not, it’s kind of basically a vehicle to portray part of the American dream, with elements of Greek tragedy and that’s all going to be coming out through the visuals. It’s hard to explain but I think you’ll see it when it all comes together.

You can read the whole (and very long) interview on Popjustice.com. Basically Marina is doing whatever she wants, and if you don't like it, f*** you. For the record, I like it, and I think Marina is the most interesting, complex and clever popstar we've had in ages. Apart from Heidi Range of course.

[PLAYLIST] The It's Pop sound of Summer '11

2011-08-08T15:17:00.000+02:00

Credit : FlickR cc Susan NYC

With a Summer weather as depressing as a Pitbull x Nicki Minaj x Mohombi x Will.I.Am x Cali collaboration (you KNOW it's going to happen at some point), I thought we might as well a) jet off to Mauritius b) kill ourselves with a party bucket from KFC, but I eventually figured it'd be better for me to give you a few ideas of what to load your ipods with in August. Some big names, some superstars in the making and some songs that will probably not get the success they deserve. Ready?

Will Young - Jealousy & The Way I See

1st Pop Idol winner is back on Aug 22nd with a new album Echoes, 10 years after his first audition on the show. Produced by Richard X, the record sounds very exciting judging from the lead single Jealousy, an awesome and emotional piece of electro pop, and The Way I See, a track that didn't make the album and that Will just chose to give away. Two of the best tracks of the year right here, right now.

Get The Way I See here :

***

Snow Patrol - Called Out In The Dark

While this new single might not be the band's most effective to date, I'm happy they're back and still experimenting with their trademark sound. Plus it's good to hear something else than crappy R&B. The singles is out on September 4th as part as a four-track EP. The album Fallen Empires will follow later.

***

Bright Light Bright Light - Disco Moment

My (virtual and musical) love story with Rod Thomas, aka amazing popstar in the making Bright Light Bright Light is going strong, as he continues to amaze with this fantastic piece of emotional disco. It will make you want to dance and cry at the same time, in pure Robyn style. Buy it on Itunes or Amazon now! (US/ UK/ Amazon France, only 0,89€)

***

Melanie C - Think About It

I was and still am a major Spice Girls fan, but I must admit I've never really been rewarded with their solo careers. Apart from one amazing Emma Bunton track (Maybe) and a few Geri Halliwell goodies, the only one that (almost) always delivered consistently good pop is Melanie C aka Sporty Spice. Think About It, her kinda Teenage Dream-esque new single, is no exception and I could see it become a mainstream hit, if only people were less stupid and didn't blame her for being a former Spice Girl. Her new album The Sea is out in September. Support her, you villains!

***

Oh My! - Kicking and Screaming

I told you about those two already, when they released a great (and free!) debut single a few months ago. Now they're back with a second, and even better one on which they collaborated with Example! Kicking and Screaming is just a great, super catchy and clever pop song, that deserves some proper exposure. Hopefully the girls will start releasing stuff for real, and not just as free buzz tracks. But for now, just enjoy!

Free download:

Oh My! - Kicking and Screaming by PurplePR

***

Beyoncé - End Of Time

Among the general snoozefest that is Beyoncé's fourth album "4" to me, lies this totally awesome jam called End Of Time, that saved me from drowning in an ocean of boring (but classy, you gotta give B that) ballads. This one shares some military drumming with the first anthemic single Run The World (Girls), and will have you off your seat in no time. That's exactly how I like Michelle and Kelly's best pal: up-tempo and jumpin' jumpin'

***

Wolfette - Different Story

What's so sad is the fact this single (and artist) are currently going by completely unnoticed despite being awesome. The track is great electro pop with perfect production, and Wolfette seems to have at least three great tracks under her belt, if her Soundcloud page is any indication (don't miss Vanilla, which is a free download). Can't wait to hear more from that lovely lady.

***

Creature - So High

I can't believe I forgot to post this absolute favorite of mine which sounds like a sonic fusion of Dragonette, Goldfrapp, Yeah Yeah Yeah's Zero and all other amazing poppers in between. No wonder I LOVE it more than 98% of the songs I've heard this year so far. Apart from that, this canadian band doesn't seem very exciting, but at least they're generous: you can get the track for free here. That's more than enough!

***

Robyn - Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall

Neverendingly flawless swedish pop queen Robyn recently visited BBC1's Live Lounge to promote her single Call Your Girlfriend. And as artists do when they play that show, she performed a cover of a current hit. She chose Coldplay's lastest single Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall. And you know what? She made it even better;, more emotional and epic. This woman can do no wrong.

***

Lloyd - Dedication To My Ex feat. Andre 3000 & Lil Wayn

What's not to like about a song celebrating (well, sort of) lady parts? Not much, as this track from US rapper has got me groovin' far more than I would admit. Llyod is typically the kind of artist about whom I don't give a $*** what he's done before and what he'll do after, or even what other songs are on his album. This one's just great and fun (and a bit misogynous, too, sorry ladies) and quite frankly, we don't really need much more than that, do we?

***

Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks

Their debut album Torches is marvelously uplifting and summer-y and this singalong single is no different. Well the lyrics aren't exactly a Selena Gomez lovefest, but still, the chorus is catchy as hell! If you haven't already you should definitely check their album out and see them on stage. I did twice already this year, and believe me those sexy ones definitely deserve some cheering...

***

The Saturdays - All Fired Up

Least-charismatic-but-often-musically-well-endowed band of all time The Saturdays are getting ready to release their new single All Fired Up. The track is a Xenomania-produced club banger with generic party/dancefloor/dance lyrics that follows the path of edgier and melody-less sound they launched with previous effort Notorious, but this time around it really works. I'm curious to see the video and performances of this one.

(I love the fact a "lyric video" was made, given the high quality of said lyrics. Sing, bitches!)

***

Kasabian - Switchblade Smiles

I was lucky enough to attend a listening party for Kasabian's forthcoming album Velociraptor! (out Sept 19th) a few weeks ago, and let me tell you there are some serious tunes on it. Switchblade Smiles is the lead single and gives a pretty good idea of what to expect: big melodies, more electro-rock fusion and a few surfire hits. For that matter, the album's title track is as huge as a dinosaur escape from Jurassic Park.

***

The Sound Of Arrows - Magic

You know what? This track is still as amazing as when I first blogged it two-and-a-half years ago (read here). Now things are finally getting real for the band, who are about to announce the details of their album release. I saw them live at London's Lovebox festival in July (along with 15 other people under heavy rain), and believe me, this record is going to be MAJOR. Plus they gave me chocolate. So frankly, they're my new favorite band.
PS: how cute is the video?

***

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - The Death Of You And Me

While his brother Liam decided to go massively shit with his post-Oasis debacle project Beady Eye, Noel took some more time and is back with a great single called The Death Of You And Me, taken from his new band Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' album (out Oct 17). The song is a rather classic Oasis-sounding tune complete with brass and a super-catchy chorus. What's not to love here?

***

Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite

I'm well aware this track is more than a year old, but I've been listening to it an awful lot over the past few weeks. The Nerina Pallot-penned title-track from Kylie's latest album is one of the very best off Aphrodite and should undoubtedly have been released as a single. Now, with the campaign and tour being over, there's now way this will happen, so here it is in all its "Les Folies" glory. In case you weren't able to attend the campiest and most amazing show on Earth, you can still watch it on YouTube and buy the DVD which is rumoured to be released very soon.

(Studio version)

That's all, folks!

[ALBUM REVIEW] Nerina Pallot - Year Of The Wolf

2011-08-04T16:20:00.000+02:00

You know what? This review should have been published WEEKS ago. The album was released in June, and here we are, in August, and it's still waiting for me to press the "publish" button at some point. But let's look at it this way: while I was keeping it in the oven for you to read eventually, some great news happened on the Nerina front:

- French fans: she was just signed to AZ/Universal, great purveyor of awesome pop in our country (Scissor Sisters, Sia, VV Brown...).

- Her album will be available on French iTunes on August 15

- The video for the second single Turn Me On Again just arrived in my inbox (and on the Internet, for that matter). It's a perfect match to the song: fresh, sunny, summery and warm. Love it!

SO, that album review...

Albums are are a tricky business. It's difficult to give a full body of work some consistence and convey emotion throughout a 45 minute recording. That's probably why so many artists are releasing "EPs" theses days (that and the fact they're far less expensive and time-consuming to produce). So when you get to hear an album that offers as many amazing moments as Nerina Pallot's Year Of The Wolf you understand that the difficulty of being relevant for a full 11 songs doesn't seem to worry her.

After three mostly underrated and underperforming records full of insanely good moments, Nerina, now a mother of both a baby boy and two amazing tracks on Kylie's latest album Aphrodite (the awesome title track and Better Than Today), is back with her fourth LP. And boy does she deliver.

How the first single Put Your Hand Up wasn't a huge mainstream hit is beyond me, and total unfairness. Oh wait, people prefer crap featuring Pitbull and The Black Eyed Peas "singing" about going to the club. This song is the definition of effortlessly good pop with a strong melody and construction, and in this way it's a perfect peek of what's to come.

In fact every song on this record is a little world of its own, and Nerina's voice as well as the personality she's injecting in everyone of them make them important. Usually not keen on down tempo tracks, I found myself totally caught by some of the quieter songs on the record, with This Will Be Our Year being the most addictive. History Boys is heartbreakingly beautiful and its lyrics are just perfectly balanced between cleverness and raw emotion.

Next single Turn Me On Again (out Aug 22, artwork below) is a great choice because it shows a playful and uplifting side to the record that could probably convince more people to look into it further.

Year Of The Wolf is a real breeze of fresh air and a slice of real life that's at times overwhelming and at times sad. It creates moments of real emotion and gave me an impression that's perfectly summarized in a line of I Do Not Want What I Do Not Have : 'it's so good to be alive".

Sadly, you can now hear the new Sugababes single in full.

2011-08-01T22:49:00.002+02:00

Remember when the Sugababes sounded like that : (Freak Like Me, 2002, Suga 2.0) ?

or like that (Hole In The Head, 2003, Suga 2.0) ?

or like that (Push The Button, 2005, Suga 2.0) ?

or like that (About You Now, 2007, Suga 3.0) ?

or even like that (Get Sexy -MAJOR guilty pleasure-, 2009, Suga 3.0/4.0) ?

Well, if you expected something in the lines of their previous hits for their comeback, you're in bad luck. Me too, for that matter. After some unnecessary teasing, some ridiculous endorsement for a phone company, a quite bad "debut performance" and some neverending tweeting, the fourth version of the band once known as Sugababes finally debuted their lacklustre new single Freedom.

Here it is:

Pretty disappointing, right? Bland, generic and not-so-anthemic, it is in no way the type of song the band needed to get back on track. All this is quite annoying because when you think about how amazing this multi-lineup band used to be, you can only regret how uninteresting and unexciting it has become.

I believe their reign as the UK's second best girlband of the century (if we don't consider the return of the Spice Girls in 2007), after Girls Aloud of course, ended after Keisha Buchanan left in 2009. Being the last remaining member of the original band, she was some sort of guarantee for the band to remain as credible as could be. That and their (i.e. their team's) choice to go more urban, r&b, less original and generally super-slutty, and to step away from their pop sound, which was a bad on,e and just set them as a bunch of Fergies. Yup, it's that sad.

Not that there's much competition on the girlband front at the moment (ok, The Saturdays can still accidentally release a good single), but Sugababes will need way better songs than that if they don't want to disappear. For good this time.

OH LOOK! A photo from the set of the Freedom video, that was just tweeted by social-networking sites philosopher and intellectual leader Jade Ewen. Stylish and classy, right? By the way, if you want to read tweets as fascinating as "I just had a great facial, I feel so good", don't forget to follow Heidi Range. Probably my favorite person on Twitter EVER.

OK the bridge + chorus will be stuck in my head all night. I guess that's some sort of victory for team Sugababes.

Rough edit of Nicola Roberts' video for Lucky Day

2011-07-29T17:21:00.003+02:00

OH LOOK ! Here's what seems to be Nicola Roberts' new video for her next single Lucky Day. Or more precisely a very rough edit of it. Funny you can see the mentions "effects" where special effects will obviously be added later in the editing process.

Apart from that the song is a total success, much more accessible than first single Beat Of My Drum but no less amazing and fresh-sounding. Hopefully she'll manage to get a proper hit out of it. What do you think ?

Nicola Roberts - Lucky Day с Видео bigmir)net.

Beautiful artwork, baby!

Amy Winehouse (1983 - 2011)

2011-07-25T20:27:00.000+02:00

This picture and video sum up perfectly the trashy-glamourous and insanely talented being and artist that was Amy Winehouse. Her Album Back To Black (which sold 3,092 million copies in the UK alone, and probably a lot more by the end of the week) is one I've listened to so many times I feel like it's been attached to my body.

So her passing doesn't only feel like an incredible waste of talent, it leads me to wonder how her entourage could let her go this low (see the Belgrade debacle of a few weeks ago, for which her manager has a lot to answer to), even though you can't really help someone who doesn't want help.

But let's remember the good stuff, the amazing and immortal songs, the great performances and the black diamond Amy Winehouse was and will hopefully remain in people's minds. I'm sad.

Seems like 90% of Amy Winehouse videos are not viewable on blogs. Sorry if you are redirected to YouTube...

Metronomy get remixed by Clock Opera (free download)

2011-07-21T12:24:00.001+02:00

My favourite track of Metronomy's latest effort The English Reviera got remixed by one of my favorite DJs/Producers/Remixers around, Clock Opera. Their treatment of The Bay is laid back yet perfect to dance to lasciviously around the pool. Provided where you live is currently experiencing Summer, unlike Paris at the moment...

Having seen the band live twice over the past three weeks (at Belfort's Eurockéennes and London's Lovebox festivals), I can say I'm totally reconciled with them. Their set is the right mix of bouncy and laid-back sexy. I loved it way more than the actual record, which I thought was a bit of a snoozefest.

Stream and download the track for free below and watch the video for the originial!

Metronomy - The Bay (Clock Opera Remix) by Anorak London

Jali : full band à Paris

2011-07-13T12:41:00.002+02:00

Jali était le 7 juillet dernier à Paris pour son premier concert dans la capitale. C'était l'occasion pour lui d'inaugurer la formation "full band" et de faire découvrir à un public d'invités (amis, pros...) la majorité des titres de son premier album à paraître en octobre prochain.

L'occasion pour la fine équipe bruxelloise de se retrouver et de se remémorer cet inoubliable weekend. Vite rejoints par un Jali visiblement ravi du concert tout juste terminé, nous avons pu échanger avec lui sur le chemin parcouru depuis notre première rencontre, des passages en radio de L'española au tournage apparemment épique du clip.

La machine Jali est lancée, et ne s'arrêtera pas de sitôt !

[LIVE REPORT] Janet Jackson live @ l'Olympia, Paris

2011-06-30T08:30:00.001+02:00

To read this review in English, please click "more more more" at the end of this post.

JANET ! J'ai grandi avec toi ! J'avais toujours eu envie de te voir en live ! J'avais un peu peur, je l'avoue. Ce que j'avais vu de ton récent Discipline Tour m'avait quelque peu échaudé. Et puis il y a quelques mois, tu as annoncé une série de concerts en Europe "up close and intimate" notamment à Paris dans une salle à taille humaine, l'Olympia. J'avais de quoi attendre ce moment avec impatience et me réjouir de te voir interpréter sur scène les titres mythiques qui ont bercé mon enfance et mon adolescence. Eh oui, tu es une de ces artistes que j'ai découvert très jeune, je ne sais plus bien comment. Mais aujourd'hui, après t'avoir vue sur scène, je peux te le dire sans détour : tu m'as déçu. Beaucoup.

Janet, j'avais la meilleure place imaginable, au premier rang du balcon, pile en face de toi. Une vue parfaite, un confort optimal (malgré la température tropicale), j'étais même mieux placé que les quelques VIP du pauvre qui avaient fait le déplacement pour toi (oui Jean-Roch, toi qui es parti après seulement 15 minutes de show, j'étais devant toi, coucou Kamel Ouali, ça va, je t'ai pas caché la vue?, bisous Christophe Willem, il arrive cet album?). Même Mme Live Nation était dans mon dos. Seul Jermaine ton frérot, salué par une ovation hystérique du public à son arrivée pendant le noir scène pouvait rivaliser avec moi. Alors bon, de quoi puis-je me plaindre, me demanderas-tu ? Mais de ton show ma chère Janet, de ton show. C'est un peu pour ça que je suis venu, à vrai dire.

Disons que j'ai eu la vilaine impression d'assister à un megamix de 90 minutes entrecoupé d'interludes aussi inutiles qu'interminables, qui ne t'ont même pas servi à te changer (enfin si, une fois) et à quitter ainsi tes fringues H&M. Ah oui, disons aussi que techniquement, ton show m'a fait penser à une production du début des années 90. D'où sortait cet écran discount basse définition ? Du Spiceworld Tour des Spice Girls ? Et les tenues des tes danseurs ? Du Dance Machine 4 à Bercy ? Et tes projections ? De Windows Media Player 99 ?

Je n'ai pas aimé entendre des versions tronquées, avortées de tes chansons, même si on est bien d'accord, tu as un nombre impressionnant de titres que j'aurais aimé te voir interpréter ce soir. Mais bon, la première partie de ton show, où chaque chanson se fondait dans la suivante, m'a frustré au plus haut point. Dans le meilleur des cas on a eu droit à des versions de 2:30 à 3 minutes, dans le pire de 30 secondes. A peine le temps de se réjouir qu'on passait déjà au tube suivant sans toujours s'en rendre compte.

Si les années 80 et la première moitié des années 90 ont été largement privilégiées ce soir (et tant mieux, tu as tant de titres en or issus de ces années là), la suite pourtant fort excitante de ta carrière a été à peine survolée. Si bien évidemment Together Again fait partie de la setlist, Got Til It's Gone, Go Deep, I Get Lonely, de ton fantastique album The Velvet Rope (1998) sont oubliées, et à part quelques singles des années suivantes (All For You, Doesn't Really Matter, Feedback), on peut dire que tu ne t'es pas étendue. J'aurais pu me bouger pour voir une de tes tournées précédentes, me rétorqueras-tu, mais je pense qu'un survol plus complet de ta carrière aurait satisfait ceux qui comme moi, pensent que tu n'as pas fait que des daubes mid-tempo ces dernières années (2nite, Rock With U par exemple, sur Discipline)… Et nous mettre le clip de Runaway en tout début de concert, au lieu de nous l'interpréter en bonne et due forme (Runaway, quoi!!!), c'est passible de la cour martiale de la pop. Comme si Kylie arrêtait de chanter Can't Get You Out Of My Head. Ce qu'elle finira bien par faire, je le crains. Bref. J'aurais bien voulu chanter Whoops Now aussi. Elle m'a toujours plu, celle-là.

Ah en revanche, le second "acte" du spectacle, le megamix de ballades, autant te dire que je m'en serais volontiers passé. J'aurais loupé les chandeliers bien kitsch et moches, ceci dit.

Evidemment, tu as rendu hommage à Michael, le temps d'une minute de Scream et d'un montage photo bien cheesy sur Together Again. Bonne idée, de ne pas en avoir fait des tonnes. C'était ton show. D'ailleurs, amincie et énergique, tu l'as porté de bout en bout. Tes danseurs t'ont avantageusement accompagné, mais jamais éclipsée.

Tes fans hardcore (ce que je ne suis pas) ont semblé heureux de ce show par ailleurs assez court (1h30, interludes de 5 minutes comprises) et presque toujours chanté en live. J'en suis ravi. Peut-être suis-je passé à côté du simple plaisir de te voir sur scène, mais franchement j'attendais mieux de toi. Tu es Janet Jackson, quand même.

Le saviez vous? Les meilleures places mises en vente pour les concerts à l'Olympia sont disponibles sur le site web de la salle www.olympiahall.com. Par ailleurs, l'appli iPhone de la mythique salle rouge est bien conçue, et gratuite sur l'app store. A découvrir sans tarder !

JANET! I grew up with you! I always wanted to see you perform! Truth be told, I was a bit scared. The videos I had seen from your Discipline Tour weren't very exciting. Then a few months ago you announced a string of "up close and personal" dates in Europe, and knowing you would play human)sized Olympia in Paris made me quite excited in anticipation. To see you perform the hits that I loved as a child and a teen!! Cause yes, you're one of those artists I've discovered when I was really young, and I don't really remember how. But today, after seeing you perform on a stage, I can say it: you disappointed me. A lot.

Janet, I had the best seat in the house. For real. Balcony, first row, center stage almost. Three meters away from your brother Jermaine, who was greeted with a standing ovation when he took his seat at the very beginning of the show. I had a better seat than the VIPs, than Mrs. Live Nation even. So what's there to complain about, you'll ask. Your show, my dear Janet. Your show. That was the reason I was there in the first place.

Let's say I had the rather unpleasant impression I witnessed a 90-minute long megamix. In between each "act", you stiffed some useless and never ending interludes you didn't even use to change costumes (okay, just once), and by that I mean "trade H&M jeans and tank tops with your dancers". Let's say that technically, your show reminded me of a show from the early 90s. Where did you get this low-definition screen? From the Spice Girls' Spiceworld Tour? Your dancer's costumes? From an old Pop Idol Tour? Your projections? From a 1999 version of Windows Media Player?

I didn't like hearing cut-to-pieces versions of your hits, even though I have to admit you have an impressive collection of hits I would have loved you to perform that night. That being said, the first part of your show, when all the songs were blended together was extremely frustrating. At best we got 2:30 / 3 min versions of the tracks, at worst 30 seconds. As soon as we were getting into a song, it switched to the next one, and sometimes it was hard to even notice.

Most of the songs you played were from the 80s and the first half of the 90s. It's a good thing because you have so many great tracks from this period), but it's too bad you left the rest of your catalogue aside like this, except for All For You, Doesn't Really Matter and Feedback. Of course you played Together Again, but you totally forgot the other hits from your magnificent Velvet Rope album (Got Til It's Gone, Go Deep, I Get Lonely). True, I could have dragged my lazy a** to one of your most recent tours, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one thinking you had a few recent tracks worth playing (what about Rock With U or Tonight, from Discipline?). Playing the Runaway video at the beginning of the show instead of playing it for real was a pop crime. Imagine if Kylie stopped performing Can't Get You Out Of My Head! Ok, she probably will, someday. Oh, and I would have loved to hear a performance of Whoops Now. I've always loved this one.

The second act of the show, the ballad megamix, was not exactly something I'd call "necessary" and/or "exciting". Well at least I got to see the ugly candelabra.

Of course, you paid Michael homage through a minute-long rendition of your duet Scream and a cheesy photo montage during Together Again. It was a good thing not to overdue the whole Michael thing, in my opinion. It was your show after all. Speaking about you, you looked fit and full of energy and carried it throughout. Your dancers were a good addition to the show and they didn't outnumber you.

Your hardcore fans (which I am not) seemed very pleased by that pretty short concert (90 minutes, with 5-minute long interludes here and there), and sung live for the most part. I'm happy about that. Maybe I should have just appreciated the fact to see you on a stage for the first time, but quite frankly I was expecting way more from you. You're Janet Jackson after all.

Darren Hayes is BACK BACK BACK

2011-06-24T13:17:00.001+02:00

I L.O.V.E. Darren Hayes. The same way I L.O.V.E.D. Savage Garden. Yes for those who didn't know, Darren was the Australian twosome's singer back in the day.

His solo work undoubtedly makes him one of the very few amazing male popstars. Too bad he's still appears as an outsider of the pop royalty. He's one of the very few guys who can make pop as interesting as with female artists.

His new single Talk Talk Talk is an awesome and clever slice of electro-pop goodness. The verses are reminiscent of Madonna's Get Together (can anyone do a mash up please?), as xolondon pointed out the other day on Twitter. And those strings at the end of the single edit of the track !!!!
Ever the Madonna fan, Darren recorded a REALLY great cover of the Queen's Angel as the b-side to the single. He did also cover Dress You Up a few years ago to stellar results.

(Dress You Up)

Now you know what to do: head to the nearest iTunes store and buy buy buy those two tracks. Pop probably won't get any better this Summer.

PS: Darren, I want to interview you. Thank you. Kiss kiss kiss.

Florrie the Experimenter

2011-06-23T17:37:00.000+02:00

I know, it hasn't been long since I last mentioned Florrie. It's not my fault, she's been pretty busy lately. She recently released her second EP Experiments (after Introduction in late 2010) she worked on for several months with Brian Higgins from Xenomania, who's also her manager. Remember, I told you I had a chat with both of them when Florrie graced Paris with her presence in May.

At the time Brian let me listen to about a minute of I Took A Little Something, which made me all wet on the inside. Even a minute of it was enough to understand this song was major: first as in "a major pop track", second as in "a major departure from what she had done before".

Proof!

The second EP marks a bold new step in Florrie's budding career. It takes everything you thought it would be, shakes it up, cuts it, and serves it to you in the form of a six-track collection of brilliant and daring pop. I will not lie, and it seems Florrie remembered it from our aftershow chat, I didn't really like the first single Begging Me at first.

Oh I love Twitter! You can chat with popstars & fellow bloggers, just like that.

I guess I was surprised and a bit disappointed it didn't sound as catchy and immediate as some of her earlier work. But in the context of the EP, it makes sense. It's taking risks, it's not meant to catch your ear instantly but it seduces you for sure after you take the time to appreciate it and accept you won't immediately love it. A good part of the record had the same effect on me. While I fell right in love with She Always Gets What She Wants (which I had heard live twice already) and its reworked instrumental, and couldn't resist the charms and awesomeness of Took A Little Something, it took me repeated listens to get around more complex tracks like Experimenting With Rugs and Speed Of Light.

Gorgeous video for I Took A Little Something, shot by the Dolce & Gabbana team in Paris.

The structure, length and general feel of these tracks explain the whole set's title quite well. Here Florrie and Brian experimented on sounds, songs, on the whole pop format. It reminded me of some of Girls Aloud's Out Of Control album where, alongside obvious hits (The Promise, Turn To Stone…) there were amazingly daring and exciting stuff you don't often hear in pop nowadays. I'm referencing the EPIC and impossible-to-surpass Untouchable of course, as well as Love Is The Key or Miss You Bow Wow. By taking her musical journey a step (two steps) further, Florrie proves she has more than meets the eye and confirms her huge potential.

Just on a side note, I'm fed up with hearing here, there and everywhere that Lady Gaga is the sound of the future, her album is the best of the year, of the decade etc. It is not true. It's just an uninspired rehash of everything that's been done over the past twenty years. There's no or very little experimentation. If you want modern, forward-thinking pop, listen to Florrie. And Robyn.

If you have read her very clever blog post already (if not, do it now!), you understand how consistent her strategy is with her music (and the other way around too!). If she keeps making such exciting experiments, there's no doubt her climb of the pop Everest won't stop anytime soon. I'll be among those following her to the top anyway.

--

You can listen to Experiments on Florrie's site and you can (should/must) buy it on iTunes (links)

[DELOCALISATION] It's Pop! à Bruxelles avec Jali

2011-06-11T17:26:00.001+02:00

4 mai 2011, réception d'un mail intitulé : "Loïc, si on partait à Bruxelles chez un artiste ?" Moi je suis là pour faire plaisir aux gens, vous savez, alors...

Fast forward 21 mai 2011

Mais quel était l'objet de cette escapade en terre bruxelloise (la première pour moi) me direz-vous ? C'est simple. Le très recommandable label Barclay, incarné ici par son barbu-mais-c'est-pas-grave community manager Anthony, a signé un nouvel artiste belge, et l'idée était donc de partir à sa rencontre et de vivre le temps d'un weekend dans son environnement, mais également de découvrir sa musique à l'occasion d'un concert. C'est ainsi qu'accompagné de trois charmantes et talentueuses jeunes femmes (Ally du blog Truth Hearts, Annaïg qui tient le Blog de la Blonde et Camille, qui officie sur Fashion Gazette), je suis parti à la découverte de la capitale Européenne et de l'un de ses talents les plus prometteurs : Jali.

C'est lui, en pleine action :

Pardon, ça c'est Janneken Pis, la pote du Manneken Pis. Ils aiment les enfants qui urinent on dirait, dans cette ville.

Donc Jali, c'est lui :

Première rencontre peu après notre arrivée, au cours d'un déjeuner qui sera l'occasion de découvrir que :

1) En Belgique, les bouteilles de coca font 20cl et que le concept de la carafe d'eau n'existe pas,

2) Ce jeune homme au parcours atypique et à la bonne humeur communicative va nous faire passer un sacré weekend.

Au gré d'une promenade dans Bruxelles, et de discussions avec notre hôte, nous en apprenons un peu plus sur lui, sa vie ("tiens ici c'est mon école", "allez je vous emmène dans ma brasserie préférée", "là c'est sympa pour faire la fête !"), et son parcours. Autodidacte, et ayant grandi entre Bruxelles et le Rwanda d'où il est originaire, il apprend la guitare sur internet et se met à écrire des chansons dans son coin. Il se rend compte que ça fonctionne plutôt bien. Sous l'oeil bienveillant mais jamais complaisant de sa soeur, il progresse, affine son écriture, muscle ses mélodies. Suite logique, il emmène ses compositions sur des scènes de la ville. Assez logiquement vu le talent du garçon, il est repéré, courtisé avant de s'associer à Barclay, l'écurie de -M-, Noir Désir, Cocoon ou encore Vanessa Paradis.

En parallèle de premières parties prestigieuses (dans les Zéniths de France avec Bernard Lavilliers, ou encore avec De Palmas), qui lui permettront de se familiariser avec les grandes salles, il enregistre son premier album. Un opus qui sortira en octobre prochain, et qui fleure bon le succès populaire, si j'en juge par ce que l'on a pu entendre en live. Alors soyons clair, par populaire, je ne veux pas dire "Christophe Maé et ses ritournelles relou à deux balles", mais plutôt, "une sympathique collection de titres pop, simples, efficaces et sincères qui n'auront pas de mal à toucher un large public".

Ce qui frappe en premier chez Jali, c'est sa personnalité, son entrain, et son enthousiasme à avancer dans une direction qui semblait être faite pour lui, sans qu'il en ait réellement eu conscience avant que les choses ne deviennent concrètes. Aussi sympathique sur scène qu'il l'est dans la vie, Jali n'a pas hésité à nous faire partager son univers, à nous entraîner là où les touristes ne vont pas, et à nous donner envie de revenir !

Nous passerons bien évidemment sous silence l'épisode dit du "mojito tueur", qui a laissé quelques traces chez notre fine équipe d'intrépides blogueurs. Allez, je tease un peu avec la photo suivante, qui devrait vous éclairer un peu :

Imaginez 2 x 3 litres du doux breuvage, et surtout ses effets sur notre petit groupe, et vous comprendrez que la vie nocturne bruxelloise s'est avérée pleine de surprises et s'est étirée jusqu'aux premières heures du dimanche. Il fallait bien fêter le triomphe de Jali sur la scène du Live Music Café, non ? Un monde fou, un température quasi-tropicale, des groupies en folie, les premiers signes d'une belle aventure pour un artiste, qui dis-je un vrai coup de coeur dont je vous reparlerai très vite.

En attendant, vous pouvez écouter, et vous procurer sur iTunes le single L'Espanola.

(Ceci est une version acoustique!)

Ci dessous, je vous propose un excellent résumé de notre weekend grâce à l'infini talent de La Blonde, qui, caméra au poing nous a ramené de nombreuses images et concocté une superbe vidéo souvenir. Pour lire son report complet, je vous suggère d'aller faire un tour par ici.

Avec Jali à Bruxelles (Vidéo) par notsoblonde

Par ailleurs, voici un teaser animé illustrant le single sus-cité, le premier d'une série.

Pour suivre Jali, il y a sa page Facebook, son compte Twitter (c'est le sien, pas celui du label qui fait semblant de twitter pour son artiste), et enfin un blog souvent rigolo. Voilà, vous savez tout, en attendant la suite...

Un grand merci à Anthony du label Barclay, pour cet excellent weekend et cette jolie découverte musicale et humaine.

[EXCLUSIVE] Live session : Elisa Tovati & Tom Dice "Il Nous Faut".

2011-06-08T12:40:00.002+02:00

Tiens, et si on tenait l'un des tubes de l'été ? Probable, le titre étant déjà #7 sur iTunes (et premier pour les titres français).

Après un showcase plus que convaincant dans les locaux de Wizee lundi 6 juin, mes potos de 3ème Gauche TV et moi-même avons voulu en savoir plus sur Elisa Tovati et son nouvel album Le Syndrome de Peter Pan (qui sortira le 20 juin). Rendez-vous fut donc pris pour une interview et une session live exclusive de son duo avec le chanteur Belge Tom Dice, Il Nous Faut. Joué pour la première fois dans cette configuration, la chanson dévoile une échange délicat entre les deux artistes.

A suivre sur It's Pop! et 3emeGauche.TV, une interview d'Elisa, réalisée par yours truly !

Pour écouter la chanson dans sa version originale, c'est ici!

www.3emeGauche.tv / Elisa Tovati sur Facebook et Twitter / Tom Dice sur Facebook et Twitter.

NEW COLDPLAY ! Life is amazing!

2011-06-03T13:46:00.000+02:00

Life is fantastic this week. After a new Robyn video and the premiere of Nicola Roberts' single yesterday, today sees the world premiere of Coldplay's new single Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall.

The on-air-on-sale strategy being this amazing idea, the track was made available on iTunes right after it was played for the first time on the radio. Which means I've owned it (and listened to it) for 40 minutes now. It's 1:41 pm Paris time on this Friday.

The song is an epic track in the vein of Viva La Vida, lots of things are happening in 4 minutes, and I still need to get my head around it. But the drumming in the last few seconds of the song are MAJOR. Coldplay, our love story can start again.

[NEW ROBYN VIDEO ALERT] Call Your Girlfriend

2011-06-02T20:02:00.001+02:00

The best-current-popstar-in-the-world-apart-from-Kylie-and-Madonna, the awesome Robyn, just premiered her new video, for Call Your Girlfriend. Simplicity, class and awesomeness seem to be the key points in this video.

If you haven't already (then I wonder what you're doing on my blog), please give Robyn's fantastic 2010 trilogy Body Talk a listen. The best pop we've had in years. And probably until she evetually records its follow-up.

Can't wait to see her live in London on July 17!!!! Lovebox festival is going to be quite the extraordinary weekend.